A Family for Christmas
by Eryessa
Summary: A holiday story from Roman Reigns' childhood. It involves Annella 'Annie' Grange, a foster kid with a not so nice life. All she wants is to find a family that would be there for her. Will this family be the one she finally finds a place in. Or will teenage angst cause her to be sent away. Not sure if it's a RomanOC romance just yet. I haven't gotten to that part yet.
1. Chapter 1

"I swear, Ms. Trent, they are just going to dump me like most of them." I told my social worker.

No one wanted me. I was too old for adoption, I mean I only had two years before I was considered an adult and I would have to fight real life on my own. After what happened at my last foster home the social workers were scrambling to put the kids into other homes. My social worker, Ms. Trent, a old social worker that really did try to get me what I needed even though I was placed in a not so enjoyable home.

When she did find a home, it was not in Miami, Florida where I had been living. This home was located in western Florida, in Pensacola. The family itself were personal friends of Ms. Trent, so they agreed to house me until another foster family home opened up for me.

The house I was going to was fairly big. It was sort of light blue in color with white trimming around the windows. Off in the distance I could hear the roar of the ocean. That was a familiar sound I had full knowledge of. One of the few places were I could go to and write on my own. Maybe they would let me go and hang out at the beach. But then again, it was Thanksgiving day, who knew what they were doing today. Who knew what sort of traditions these people had going on. Ms. Trent told me that they were all nice people and that they were expecting me.

"Everything is going to be okay, Annella." Ms. Trent told me as we approached the front door of the house. She pressed the front of her navy blue blouse down, trying to get the few wrinkles out of it. Her pencil skirt matched the dark colored top and had a few stray hairs sticking to it. At least she was trying to look presentable. I didn't have any nice cloths, at all.

I could hear a lot of people either inside or outside, maybe it was both. I became nervous because this was something that I didn't want to deal with. Not now. I'm used to all the quiet other homes had. But this family was a lot of loud when we got to the front door.

"Be nice, Annella. This is a chance for you to actually have a home for the rest of your childhood. Or at least until we can get you into another home."

"And then what, they'll drop me like a ton of bricks?" I asked.

She sighed before reaching over and ringing the doorbell. It didn't take long before someone opened the door. It was who answered the door that made me take a step back in uncertainty.

This guy was tall, taller than my five foot nothing height. He was built like professional football player. He had wide shoulders and a defined brow. He had long hair, curling slightly at the ends. He was definitely my age, because the man that also walked up looked like an older version of the guy at the door.

"Kimberly Trent, so glad to see you." The man said, moving around the tall guy.

I took another step from the man. He was big, he was actually on the fat side with short, stiff curly gray hair that hung down to his shoulders. He looked like a dark skinned Santa Clause without the beard, and gray hair. I already said that. When writing sometimes it's good to repeat things, but not always in the same paragraph. Dang it, I was going at it again with the grammar and literary protocols in my head.

"You as well, Sika. And this is your son, which one, Joe right?" My social worker extended her hand to the guy that was looking at me.

"That's right, Ms. Trent." He glanced at her before looking at me. "Hi, I'm Joe." Then he held his hand out to me.

"Annella Grange." I replied, shaking his hand, not because I wanted to but because I had to.

"Annie, so nice to meet you." Sika said, smiling wide and showing me his teeth.

"It's Annella, no one calls me Annie." I looked at the larger man.

"Maybe that will change." Joe smiled at me. "You'll be rooming with my sister Myritza, she's excited to actually see you."

"Go take her things up to your sister's room. Ms. Trent and I have some legal stuff to go over, Son." Sika said.

"Come on." Joe reached for my suitcase and took it from me.

Well I had no say in the matter. At least he had my cloths suitcase, my backpack is where I kept my writing stuff, my journal and some of the small books on how to write novels. My personal stuff was going to be personal, these people were not going to figure out my deepest and darkest secrets.

The upstairs of the house was where the bedrooms were. There were four. The master bedroom was nearest the stairs and there were three more that had different names on them, like plaques or something of that nature. But one door had two plaques and one of the plaque had a name on it.

"Annie's Room." I said out loud, looking at the black and red painted wooden plaque with silver letters. "Who's Myritza?"

"That would be my younger sister. She's the second to last youngest in the family. She was ecstatic about you coming so she made a door sign for you. Ms. Trent said what your favorite colors were and Myritza went to town after. She loves arts and crafts." Joe said before knocking on the closed door. "My, My, are you in there?"

"What do you want, Joseph?" A voice came out.

"Can you open up? I got something to show you."

"Just leave me alone. I hate Vanessa. She has to ruin everything for me."

Whoever was on the other side of the door didn't sound to be happy. Glancing at Joe, who groaned in agitation, I stepped closer to the door and leaning in towards the door.

"Um, it's Annella Grange. I just got here..." I didn't finish that sentence when I heard thundering footsteps and then the door swung open. "Uh hi."

The next moment I had a girl, maybe twelve or thirteen years old, hugging me. I yelped, struggling to get a secured footing because I felt like I was going to fall down. Helplessly looking at Joe, all he did was laugh at me, or at what was happening to me. I'm guessing this was Myritza, and she took to me like a trooper.

"Oh my God, you're not really what I was expecting but come on. I want to show you my, I mean our room." The dark haired girl said grabbing my hand and pulling me into the room.

Well, she was not what I had expected when I got here. Joe simply stood at the door and watched his younger sister parade me around in the room. It looked like a typical girl's room. Lots of pink and bright colors. Compared to my camouflage pants and black shirt, she was all bright and happy. There were two beds right next to each other, kind of like one of the dorm rooms I had been in with other institutions. Her bed had a pink bed spread on it while mine was red and black with two pillows and there was a stuffed bear sitting up on top of the bed.

"And this is your desk. We had to buy a new one because Vanessa didn't want to share a room with you. But I totally wanted to share with you so, yeah. That's your desk. You can decorate it however you want. Oh, and look what Mom and Dad got you, a laptop because your social worker said that you liked to write. I think Vanessa is jealous that you got a new computer while hers is old." The girl said all of that in one breath, I think. She had a whirlwind personality that's for sure.

"Myritza," Joe finally spoke up.

"What, I'm telling the truth." She looked at her brother. "And besides, I wanted Annie to come stay with us."

"Why?" Joe asked.

"Well, duh, she wrote in and won the young writer's contest. When I read that short story, I was like, wow, I would like to write like that one day."

I started to understand why she wanted me to stay with her. I could see the papers littering her desk, out of order and in a sort of disarray kind of way. She probably wanted to be a writer, too. I mean, all I could understand and do was writing because it gave me a place to put my thoughts and feelings. Maybe it was the same for her.

"Are you a writer?" I asked.

"I want to be one, but Mom and Dad want me to pursue more athletic pursuits, like cheerleading. Vanessa and I are on the team together, Joe's on the football team."

Glancing at Joe, he nodded as if he was telling me silently that what his sister said was true. So he was a football player, he looked like he was one.

"When you three are done," someone else joined us at the room.

I turned around to look. The person turned out to be a girl around my age. She had light eyes, much like Joe did. But she didn't look as friendly as Joe and Myritza. She was lean, with long black hair, and wide hips. Me, I was tiny, tiny in everything on me. At five foot nothing I was even towered over by Myritza. Joe, well, he was a giant it seemed to me. He easily towered over me.

"It's time to get food." She looked me over. "She looks like she could eat two plates, she'll need it."

"Vanessa," Joe warned.

"What, I'm just pointing out the obvious." Then she turned back to me. "Hi, I'm Vanessa Anoa'i. I bet you already know that."

"Not really, no." I replied.

"Well, come on. You don't keep hungry Samoans from eating for long or they get all sorts of angry." She turned so suddenly that she disappeared.

With this being Thanksgiving, I was not really sure how this family celebrated the holidays.

"We have cousins and aunties from California. Pensacola is where my family lives." Joe was not the one that said it, it was my new best friend, Myritza. "Our founding father came from Hawaii and moved to San Francisco."

There were a lot of dark skinned people in this place, a lot. Samoan, from what I knew, were from Hawaii, and that would explain why I felt suffocated in this place. Little kids running around, partents yelling at them to stop, and I was thrown right in the middle of all of this. Right on Thanksgiving Day, what a time for me.

"Better get used to it fast, a lot of our family wants to meet you." Joe leaned down and whispered into my ear.

I turned to look at him but all I got was a smirk as I had to follow Myritza through a throng of people in the kitchen towards the backyard.

Now the backyard was positioned in a way that it seemed like an indoor cafeteria was brought outside. Long tables and benches were lined up around the rather large backyard. There were people roasting on two barbeque pits, the smell of pork wafted through the air. Wafted, that was something I was not expecting to think about. Wafting, floating, I needed to work on my descriptive words when it comes to these things.

"You must be Annie." A man, a larger than life man, said approaching us. And I didn't have time to prepare for being lifted into a bear hug of bear hugs, this large man, I'm guessing Samoan and maybe part Asian, with a Buddha style body build. He pretty much could toss me around like no tomorrow. "Bet you know who I am by now." He said this after putting me down.

Still dazed about being picked up like a child's toy, I swayed where I stood. "Sorry, I don't. Am I?"

"You don't know who our dad is?" A teenage boy appeared, as if out of thin air right behind the larger than life man that had hugged me. "Where have you been living?"

"All over Miami." I responded, seeing two slightly identical guys now standing on either side of the large man. "I"m Annella Burke..."

"Oh, yeah, Aunt Patricia said that they were taking in a foster kid." Twin Two said, looking me over. "So, how old are you?"

"Sixteen."I answered.

"Funny, you look twelve." Twin One said, only to get smack up side the head by the strange man. "Ow, Dad, that hurt."

"Good, maybe next time you will remember to keep you mouth shut, Jonathan." Then the man turned to me. "I am Solofa Fatu, I am Rikishi from the WWF, well used to."

I furrowed my brows. "I don't know what that is, the WWF."

"Wow, you really don't know anything do you?" Twin One laughed.

"I've been shuffled from foster home to foster home starting at the age of two, when my parents abandoned me." I turned to look at the second twin who had said it. "So, yeah, if your family is famous I wouldn't know it." Really, did it shock anyone anymore that maybe there were people who just didn't know everything about anything?

"Sorry." Jonathan mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets before walking away.

"You won't have to be bothered by my sons, we are flying home tomorrow." Solofa said, turning my attention back to him. "And accept my apologies, my sons don't know when to shut their mouths some times."

Joe hadn't said anything, Myritza looked like she was shocked to have heard the little tidbit about my past. At least this Rikishi guy seemed nice enough.

"So what is this WWF thing?"

"It stands for World Wrestling Federation." Joe finally said. "I think they are having legal issues with the other WWF thing over using that as a name."

"Oh." Really, was it this difficult to talk about something with these people.

"Come on, you're going to sit next to me at the table." Myritza finally stepped up, tugging me along towards a back fence where a long picnic table stood. "It's the best one because you can see the beach from there."

I didn't say anything because she was right. Just on the other side of the chain link fence and a gate was a beach with perfect white powdered sand. Maybe I could head down there after dinner was through. Dinner, it was still light out. Of course this is Florida, subtropical as it was. I'm sure people in Minnesota didn't have light at three like we did.

"So are you working on anymore short stories like you had done before?" Myritza asked as we sat in front of place mats on the table.

"Not yet, no. I was thinking about writing a Christmas story but I'm not really sure."

"Can you show me out you write?" When I looked at the younger girl, she sighed almost too dramatically. "I mean, what do you do to get your stories? It's so amazing, from the piece that I did read. It was really well put together."

Put together is right, I spent hours on that short story. Considering it came from personal experience, an experience in which my back was still slightly tender from what I had to go through. Flashes of memories popped into my head, but I pushed them aside.

"I start with a rough outline, or a list of things that I want to happen within the story." I explained. "It's good to keep a notebook with you at all times because you never know when inspiration will occur and some times it's in a place where you have no control over. Some of the conversations I heard were in class between two teens that were sitting in front of me."

"I'll have to remember that."

And I'll have to remember that this was not permanent, or at least I didn't think so.

* * *

**Gee, I hope this sounds good for you guys. I have been toying with this story and with a late start I want to finish it before Christmas, to give it an honest to goodness holiday story. **

**Also, I haven't really seen any childhood stories about Roman Reigns so I thought I would give a crack at it. **


	2. Chapter 2

Myritza and Joe were my companions for this day of Thanks. They told me things about their family, things like wrestling and stuff like that. I was sort of enthralled with the idea that maybe this wrestling thing wasn't all that bad.

"Probably the most famous of the family would be our cousin Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson." Joe said as he leaned on his forearms, looking around the yard as more people trickled out in preperation for the feast to begin.

"You know I don't know who that is, right?"

"I know but this time he said he would be coming by for Thanksgiving."

People came up to the table, people I didn't know but people that were somehow family with Joe and Myritza. Too many times I had to stand up to shake hands, but at least they were nice to me. I've never really had people who were nice to me, aside from Ms. Trent that is.

"Mom." Myritza stood up as a woman with grey hair and grey eyes walked up with a dark haired girl, younger than Myritza and Joe, younger than me. "I thought you forgot."

"Of course not, I was just busy with dinner and with things for Thanksgiving. Also I needed help figuring out a few Christmas gifts for Annie."

At this point I didn't object to being called that. The name Annie was starting to grow on me. But there was one fact, I was not dressed up enough for these people.

"Christmas..." I furrowed my brows, thinking that they were just being too nice. "I don't think I'll be here that long."

"Well, it would be nice if you did. Either way, Christmas morning, wherever you are, you'll have gifts to open." She tugged me into one of the gentlest hugs I've ever received. She even rubbed my back softly.

Flashes of Christmas past memories popped up. The ones that were less thrilling than most. The fact that this family was willing to go out of their way to make me feel welcome seemed almost too good to be true.

"Come on, Summer, come sit with us." Joe motioned to the empty spot next to him.

"I'd rather sit with Solofa." She looked at me, much the same way as Vanessa and then walked away.

"Summer, you better get back here." Patricia called to her daughter. But she didn't listen, opting to act like she didn't hear her mother. "I am so sorry, Annie."

"It's nothing I haven't been around before. Like I said, I'll be gone soon and you'll have your normal life back." I replied sitting back down. "But thank you for thinking about me."

Patricia had to excuse herself as someone was calling her from the back porch, waving for her to come in. I couldn't make out who it was but I think it was someone from the Anoa'i family.

"Man, my sisters are being total brats to you." Myritza huffed, sitting down next to me. "I mean, we're helping someone in need, can't they see that?"

"It happens all the time, Myritza." I said.

"Really?" Joe turned to look at me.

I sighed. "Yeah. A lot of foster homes already have kids, kids of their own. So when a foster kid- me- comes along the house is full. Needless to say I get the blunt end of the stick. I get the hand me downs and the biological kids get the better stuff. One year, I think I was fourteen, I got a notebook, several in fact, but that was probably one of the better gifts I had gotten while in foster care. Even so, that year the other kids got videogames and videogame systems."

"Shit..." Joe mumbled then he caught himself with that word. "Don't tell my mom that I cuss, she'll be riding my ass."

"It's no worse than some of the things I had heard before, said about me to me. Most of the places just thought about the checks that came in at the beginning of the month. Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure, because look who's coming right at us." Joe nodded.

From the back porch a tall muscular man stepped out of the house. He was greeted like a hero or something. He was tall, towering over a lot of the other people that he greeted with handshakes and hugs, or a mix of the two. I saw the twin boys each given him a hug, but he kept coming towards us. He had several tattoos, at least on his arm. His black hair was in a short buzz cut look and he wore sunglasses to cover his eyes. The closer he got the more anxious I got.

"Let me guess, The Rock?" I asked as Joe stood up again.

"Yep. He made it, just like he promised."

Myritza and Joe both went to go greet the new arrival, while I stood next to the table, fidgeting with my fingers. I wasn't sure why I was so nervous, of course there were people around, hoards of them in one spot. But this guy was down right scary. It was worse because I knew he was supposed to be famous but I had no idea who he was.

"Cous, this is Annie Grange, she's staying with us for a little bit." Myritza said, as she led the man over to me. "Annie, this is Dwayne Johnson."

"The Rock, bet you know that right?"

"I had a conversation with Solofa Fatu about that earlier, no I don't know who you are." I replied, then thinking about it I realized that I sounded like a jerk or something. "I've never really watched wrestling, so no, I don't think I know who you are."

"Finally, someone who doesn't know who I am. You want to know how great that is?"

"Uh, not really, no." In the next moment I am in one of the three biggest hugs I've had that day. I actually felt several pops in my back and as I was being held in this bear hug, I am looking over Dwayne's shoulder to see that there were people watching us. Especially a woman with a baby in her arms. This woman, from the brief glimpse that I got, was smiling.

"Put her down, Cous, or you're going to kill her." Myritza said, well whined and stomping her foot. "I want her to be alive by the end of the night."

"And your anaconda arms aren't helping." I croaked out, trying to figure out what to do with my own arms since they were pinned at my side.

"Anaconda arms?" Dwayne asked once he put me down and then flexed his arms. "Never been referred as that before."

Okay, I have to admit that was a funny and slightly odd conversation, but it was worth it. Right off the bat I knew that this guy wasn't so bad. Albeit a little odd, not that the rest of the family was odd. But nearly getting my breath squeezed out of me meant something.

"So, how long are you staying with us?" Dwayne asked, bringing the conversation around to where I felt more comfortable.

"Until my social worker can find a foster family. I don't know. Mr. Sika and Ms. Patricia are friends with my social worker, Ms. Trent. And she asked them if I could stay here."

"Ah, I see. Hey, look, I have to talk to Sika anyway. It was nice to meet you, Annie."

"Yeah, you too, Dwayne." I smiled at him.

And then he was off across the field to where some of the older men were huddled around a barbecue. Pork, that's what they were looking in at. It was a large barbecue so that they could roast an entire skinned pig, but from where I was standing I couldn't see if it had an apple in it's mouth. Of course a lot of stories contained one roasted pig with an apple in it's mouth. I wondered briefly if it was to get better flavoring or if it was a decorative piece.

"Well, that's just about everyone. My brother couldn't come down because his wife is having some of her family gathering up in Cincinnati." Joe said when we sat down again.

"You have a brother?"

"Yeah, he's like ten years older than Joe." Myritza said. "He's the oldest son my parents have."

Talking about family made me think about mine. "I don't really remember what my mom or dad looked like. I don't understand why they decided to give me up. I don't even know who else there would be."

Joe reached out and rubbed my back. "Don't worry, Annie. At least with us, you'll have a family that will look out for you."

Well there was that.

I quickly found out that this Thanksgiving meal was going to be a bit of a hardcore grudge match, at least that's what Joe said.

"Yeah, all for one and one for all, come and get your food but don't fall." Myritza chimed in as we made our way to a buffet style table that had everything and then some on it. Really, the men brought out the pork. "You don't come between the men and their food when they are hungry."

"I'm not that bad." Joe said from behind me as we waited in the line with our paper plates.

"Please, you scarf down as much as the twins." She nodded at the two twin teenagers up ahead of us in the line, getting their food.

Jonathan and his brother Joshua were piling on the food on their plates. Solofa, their dad, was doing just about the same thing.

"Like father like sons." I said.

"Ain't that the truth."

We finally reached the food table, talking about things like what the WWF really was. Talking about school and that I would be in Vanessa's grade.

"I'm a freshman, Vanessa and I are on the cheerleading team together. You should join."

"No thanks, I don't really care for cheerleading. Compared to football, cheerleaders get more life threatening injuries than in football."

"So you want to join the football team."

"Nope," I glanced back at Joe. "I would rather not. I would rather have time to write."

"You still need to show me how you write and keep your information straight."

"You want straight? Okay here's the answer, I mainly adlib as I go." I looked back at the younger girl as she grabbed a few pieces of corn on the cob, and I did as well. "I make a rough outline of what I want to do and usually it works out, some times it doesn't. Half the time I have to rewrite and revise afterwards just to make it sound descent enough."

"Do you outline, like in a traditional sense?"

"I sometimes do, it depends on what I want to do. If I have a good sense of what I want to write about then there's going to be more of an outline, but if I don't, half the time I wing it. James Patterson is famous for winging it, he makes it up as he goes."

"Who?" Joe asked.

"No one has heard of James Patterson? He's one of the best crime, drama and thriller novelists out there. I have a book of his if you want to read it."

I got a few pieces of ham, or some of thei pig at least, turkey, mashed potatoes and homestyle gravy. Then I grabbed a few rolls and can of Sprite. Joe piled his plate high, something along the lines of just about two of everything and four scoops of mashed potatoes. Didn't we just talked about large portions earlier?

"What has your Thanksgivings been like?" Myritza asked.

"I had some good ones, some not so good ones. It's a more common thing than what people want to think. I will say that I have had more good times as a foster kid than bad, so that's a good thing. This is what I like to do." I said motioning to the small bowl of ranch dressing. "I like dipping my dinner rolls in ranch dressing and then eat them. See." I did as I had told them, smiling as Joe cringed at what I did.

Oddly, no matter how welcomed I was within this large family, I realized something as I was sitting there with Joe and Myritza, it was just the three of us at the table. We were the only ones there at the back table. Was I a leper or something? I could see the rest of the Anoa'i family, Joe and Myritza's parents were sitting with others, with Vanessa and Summer.

"What's wrong?" Joe asked.

"Nothing, just...I figured there would be more people with us, at this table." I said, looking at him.

"Maybe they want to give you space. I mean you did get thrown into our family on a day when famiilies get together. Maybe Mom and Dad think it's better if it's just us three back here." Joe said.

"Yeah. You were literally dumped here without much of an explination except that you need a place to stay."

Maybe they were right, maybe they were just giving me my space. I mean I wasn't really socialable to begin with. And maybe Ms. Trent spoke about my dark history. Maybe they were just being nice and letting me get to know Joe and Myritza.

In a story, this would be something good for the main character, if the main character was an anti-social odd ball. Come to think of it, I was one such person. I had massive trust issues but I knew a good person when I saw them. Maybe these people were worth trusting.

I certainly hope so.

As we ate, the song of the ocean lulled behind us. I glanced out through the gate and smiled at the sight. It was beautiful here. Away from the main city limits of Pensacola, right on the ocean and there weren't a lot of people who lived this way. At least there was room for twenty to forty people to gather in the large backyard. This place had a real family feel to it. Now if I could have that feeling every day of my life, I would feel secure.

* * *

**Yeah, another update. So, what did you all think?**


	3. Chapter 3

Most of the guests had already left, some had to fly out and others drove off to their homes in Florida. I was respectful and stood near the door with Joe, trying to be more social and courteous to this family. Regardless if I wasn't apart of it technically, I wanted to be kind to the people that allowed me to stay with them.

Dwayne, of course, proceeded to hug me until I tapped out. Joe taught me what a tap out was, a term that was used to say that I surrender in the submission hold. For all I did know, he was trying to make me submit, even if it was as simple as a hug from him. So, in the end, I had to pat his shoulder, squeaking as I did so.

"I wish he would give me those hugs again." Dwaynes wife, Dany, said as she held her daughter Simone in her arms.

The little girl smiled at me after her Dad put me back on solid ground.

"Don't worry there will be plenty more of that coming for you." He winked at her.

"That wasn't a pleasing innuendo or insinuation to hear." I stated stepping back from Dwayne. "Have a nice flight out."

"Thanks. I hope we get to see you again for Christmas this year." Dany said, giving me a one armed hug.

I patted Simone on her head, blowing the little girl a kiss. She was still smiling when they left.

"Come on, Boys, time to go." Solofa called out to his four boys.

His wife smiled nicely at me as she left, leaving me to defend myself against the man known as Rikishi.

I watched as Joshua and Jonathan approach with their younger brothers, whom I didn't get introduced to. The two younger ones left with their things, not even looking at the oddly placed white girl standing at the door. Joshua, did however give me a nod.

"Maybe we will see each other again." He said.

"Maybe. Oh no." I didn't get a chance to protect myself as Solofa proceeded to drag me into a bone crushing hug. "Not again."

"I think she's gotten a bruised back." Joe said, smirking. "After today, I'm sure she will."

"You stay safe, little cous." Solofa said, clapping a hand on my shoulder a couple of times. "I hope to see you this Christmas, Annie." That was coming from a man I didn't know so much about.

Jonathan didn't say much to me.

Others left soon after Solofa and family did. But still, to be called Little Cous was like a title or something with these people. Others started calling my little cous, not that I had an issue with that, regardless that I wasn't a cousin but I would admit to being little. Even Myrtitza as a thirteen year old Freshman was taller than me.

Later on that night I tried to help clean up, you know, to be more nice. But as I was bringing some used plates into the kitchen to throw into the trash, Ms. Patricia stopped me.

"Oh honey, you don't need to do that. This is your first night with us, I don't really think you should be doing something like this." She said taking the plates from me.

"It's okay, Ms. Patricia. I don't mind. I want to help."

"You can help by unpacking your things and putting your cloths into the dresser." She motioned me to head off. "I think the girls and I got the cleaning part down in here."

Vanessa and Summer glared at me. They were standing at the sink washing some of the cookware, Myritza was just on her way outside to pick up more plates. She was the one that smiled at me.

"Go ahead, Annie, you had one heck of a day today." Myritza said.

I was going to object but I figured Ms. Patricia would tell me the same thing. Sighing I turned to leave. But I wasn't really out of ear shot down the hall when Vanessa spoke up.

"Why can't she help?" The older teen asked.

"Because, well, it's her first day and I don't think she needs to do anything." I heard Ms. Patricia say as she and Vanessa were in the kitchen.

Sika and Joe were outside, I think they were cleaning the pig barbecuer or something like that. At least I had helped by picking up the paper plates and putting them in the trash before Patricia stopped me.

"Annella, Annella, Annella, I don't understand what's so special about her? She comes in here and wrecks the balance we have that we have going on."

"I know this seems difficult for you Vanessa..."

"Difficult, Mom, we don't know her. Yeah, she may have gotten publish, won some sort of door prize or whatever, but we don't know her. She could be a thief for all we know."

"She's never been in trouble, Vanessa." I could hear the tone in Patricia's voice changing. She dropped a few octaves or something like that when she spoke.

"But she ruined our lives." Summer added.

I sighed, looked down at my feet before walking away from the kitchen doorway. Well, there you have it, I was not welcomed in this house by anyone else. Well that wasn't true.

Only just getting up to the top of the stairs, I heard Joe call out to me from the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey, want to head out?"

"Head out where?" I asked, stepping down a few steps.

"To the beach. I just asked my mom if we could hang out there until we have to come in for the night."

"When is curfew?"

"We have to be indoors at ten. Come on, I want to show you a great place." Joe turned and disappeared around the corner of the hall that went towards the kitchen.

Taking a deep breath, I followed behind the other teen. Okay, maybe this wasn't about being nice anymore. Or maybe it was. But just the same, I was curious about what Joe was talking about. As I headed into the kitchen, Vanessa was heading out of it. And she slammed right into my shoulder, practically shoving me into the door jam.

"Vanessa Marie!" Patricia scolded the girl.

"Maybe she shouldn't take up the entire doorway like she owned the place. Oh that's right, she does." And before anyone could respond, she left, stomping down the hall and then up the stairs. I'm sure she was heading up to her room.

"Annie, I'm so sorry." Patricia said, sighing and running a hand over her hair. "I thought she would understand."

I bet Vanessa felt threatened with me being there. I mean, her parents did buy me that new laptop. I guess I was getting all of the attention and affection when she wanted it. Maybe a big family wasn't all that glamorous as I had thought.

"It's no big deal, Ms. Patricia." I said as I headed to the back door. "We'll be back soon. Joe wants to show me the beach."

"All right but you know curfew is at ten, right. You need to be in the house before then." She didn't say that to me, she said that to Joe.

"Yes, Mom, I know. Come on, Annie." Joe went out the back door first, I followed and closed it behind me. "Have you ever been to a beach before?"

"Beaches were my escape from some of the homes I was in. I like to go out there and just sit down and write notes, write my thoughts out or whatever." I told Joe when we were walking out across the backyard.

I fell into step along side Joe. He could easily out walk me at a simple pace. I took like three steps to his one. And he was the smart one, with where the beach was located on the Gulf of Mexico, there was a wind the blew in from it. I shoved my hands in my pockets, trying to keep the cool air out of my system as the two of us headed towards the high tide mark. The gulls were flying up and around, walking around us. It wasn't the turtle nesting season, I wasn't even sure if there were turtles in the gulf at this time. And we weren't that far from the Alabama border. Some would say that we were a stone's throw from the border, but at this point I think I would rather enjoy throwing stones into the surf.

"Have you ever gone out for a night swim?" Joe asked after we stood watching the sun finally set behind the horizon.

"Are you kidding, I have read and watched Jaws. I know sharks are more active at night and in early mornings. I also know that Bull sharks are more dangerous than a great white, regardless of the size between the two."

"You know a lot about sharks." It wasn't a question, more like a statement.

I shook my head and laughed. "There was a story I wrote, somewhere along the lines of Jaws and Pumpkinhead put together. I wrote a short story for school once called The Rookin."

"Roo-kin? What's that?"

"Essentially it is a mythological shark that lives in the Mississippi River, mainly near New Orleans because it is positioned right on the ocean. Well some local believe it to be a monstrous shark the attacks boats, sinks them in one bite to the hull. There are legends about bayous being haunted, what with talk of voodoo and whatnot around those parts. So I did a story centered on the Rookin, who was summoned by a voodoo priestess, or something like that. I still have the rough draft copy."

"I would like to read it some time. There is a lot of supernatural beliefs about sharks in Hawaii, in the traditional tales at least. Dad talks about them all the time. Tries to instill a sense of heritage with us."

"It's good to know where you came from so you know where you're going. I heard that quote somewhere. I don't know where though."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. You know, with being in a wrestling family almost everyone is expected to be a wrestler, well some of the guys at least. It's not mandatory that we do it, you know, but it's a tradition of sorts."

He gave me a worried expression, as if he said something wrong.

"If you think you're bringing me down with talking about being in a famous family like yours, don't be. I'm just the white girl without a home, you know."

"Have you ever wondered why your parents dumped you off when you were two?"

"Not really, some times sure but I've come to sort of accept this life. Being a foster kid is kind of better than trying to live off the streets."

Joe was a good guy, I could see it straight off. He was nice, but then again caution played a pivotal part in my life. I knew if I grew attached to this family and how nice they were to me then it would be harder for me to leave them in the end.

"So you want to be a writer, don't you?" Joe finally asked as we stood with our shoes in our hands and ankle deep in the ocean water.

"Yeah."

"How did you get interested in writing in the first place?"

"I can be free when I write. I can be who I want, say what I want and not have anyone tell me that it is right or wrong. This came about during my first not so good home, I think I was ten or so. When I couldn't take the yelling, I would shut myself away and start writing little stories to occupy my brain. And then writing became a fundamental part of my life, where I control the pieces."

"Oh, I see."

I glanced at the guy. "You don't understand do you?"

"Writing isn't really my thing. My thing is working out and playing football for school. I plan on going to Georgia Tech and play for that college team. My personal goal, I want to got into the NFL and if that doesn't pan out then I might just go into wrestling like my dad has done, even my brother."

There was so much we could talk about, but most of that would be too personal for me.

"So, are you going to school after Thanksgiving break?" Joe asked, apparently seeing the unsure look on my face.

"I think so, I'll have to ask your parents or they might just keep me out of it until I find a new home."

"I think you should go to school."

"Why, so you can keep an eye on me?" I tried to joke.

"Yeah, so that my sister doesn't try to mess with you at home."

Ah yes, Vanessa would take that as favoritism or something like that. She was forced to go to school while I got to stay home and do whatever it was that I wanted. Yeah, that didn't sound fair at all. Maybe she would start something. And from what I had seen today, it was not so good.

"What is school like for you?" I asked. "You said you're on the football team. What's that like?"

"Well, it's good. I'm a defensive linebacker, I prevent the opposing team from trying to make a touchdown."

I stared at him blankly.

"Okay, so you don't know sports." That was another statement.

"My participation has always been slim, almost always for PE." I started kicking up the cool water, colder than what I thought it would be. "What's Christmas like for your family?"

"Just another big gathering like this. Don't worry, we only open presents as a family. Everyone sort of trickles in from afar later in the day. Some stay in nearby hotels for a few days or whatever."

"Some of your family doesn't seem to like me very much."

"The Twins are dip-shits any way you look at it. I think Joshua was trying to be nice though. As for everyone else, I think they warmed up to you when you saw them out." He said looking down at his feet.

I wouldn't admit it but Joe had large feet. Of course this was coming from me. His hair shifted as the wind started blowing in from the south. My own shoulder length hair seemed to be flying around on its own accord.

"We should probably head in. It's getting sort of chilly." Joe said, looking down at me.

"Sure, I guess so."

After we got back inside, I went upstairs and sacked out on my bed. Really, I just had such an amazingly stressful day that my body wasn't able to contain itself. It shut down on me and I wasn't even under the covers.

I had a dream about Joe, handing me a Christmas gift. We were next to a tree and it was just the two of us. I couldn't see what it was that he had given me, but it was beautiful, or so I said.

"It has to be beautiful, you're part of this family now." He said, rubbing my arm stlightly.

And then I woke up. Myritza was in bed, I was out of it so to speak and for the first time in my life, I hoped dreams could be real.

Never the less, it was hard to get back to sleep after that, but eventually I did.

* * *

**Well another update for all of you. I'm trying to hurry up and get this done before Christmas itself. Hopefully I can. Besides that, how did you guys like it? Me personally, the ending was a little iffy at best.**


	4. Chapter 4

Summer looked up at me as I came into the kitchen with my backpack slung over one shoulder. I had gotten up early to get ready for school. Now that the Thanksgiving holiday was over, it was time to go back to school. The youngest of the Anoa'i kids glared at me over her cereal bowl as I placed my backpack on a chair at the kitchen table.

"Ms. Patricia," I said to the older woman, trying not to pay attention to the girl.

"Yes, dear?" She turned to look over her shoulder at me.

"Joe isn't up yet, he said he would take us girls to school today." I said, nearly panicking. I didn't want to be late on the first day of school in a new city.

"Actually I am going to take you so that we can get your paperwork for school finished. Summer, you need to get going. You'll miss your bus and I don't want to take you right now. I've got other things to work on."

The younger girl glared at me. So it was my fault that she wouldn't be getting a ride to school. Great, another mark against me with her. I was sure that Vanessa would have something to say about that when I got back later.

"Mom! I can't find my homework folder!" I heard Myritza call from upstairs.

With just four kids, this family could get loud. Over the last couple of days, Myritza was always trying to get me to watch her do something, or go out and do something with her. I am not a really social person but with these people I was always dragged off to something. Hey, I don't mind movies. I particularly like them. I even met a few of Joe's football buddies when they came over the Sunday before the start of school.

"Annie, could you go wake up Joe for me while I go help your, I mean Myritza?"

"Yes, Ms. Patricia." I answered, turning away from the table.

I had never been in Joe's room. In the days I had been with the family, I just never brought myself to go in there. It was a boy's room, if I had seen one I had seen them all. Sports and girls plastered all over the walls. Well, in Joe's case, not so much.

His room was at the end of the hall from Myritza and my room. When I knocked, I expected to get an answer. But when I didn't I sucked in a breath and opened the door anyway. Poking my head in, I tried to see where Joe's bed was, which was across the room from the door. His bed was under a window that looked out to the ocean. That meant he had a good view of the backyard. Well, go figure. His room was dark, yes, but I could make out the navy blue wall color, and the faux wood paneling at the bottom of the walls. He had shelves where he had memorabilia of various sports and accolades of his own. That and there was a basket of dirty cloths that needed to be washed next to his door. I could definitely smell stale BO as I stood there.

Joe was sacked out asleep on his bed. Snoring of all things. Luckily he was covered up at least from his mid-back down was covered. If he slept in the nude, I was in for a big surprise. Okay, now that innuendo was wrong.

"Joe," I spoke up normally. "Joe, it's time to get up."

"I don't want to." He grumbled in response.

"Well I didn't either, so you might as well, Sunshine." I replied, opening the door wider so that I could step in. "I hope you got boxers on, otherwise I'm turning on this light."

"Don't you even think about turning on that light, Annella." He grumbled.

"Your mom wanted me to wake you up so you can get your sisters to school."

He groaned, which sounded like a growl. Yeah, it definitely sounded like a growl.

"Come on, Monster." I clicked on the light. And as a payment I caught a flying pillow. "Get a move on, Leati Joe. I don't want to disappoint your mom. And I don't want to be late for school either."

And after tossing the pillow at Joe's head, I left the room.

Back down in the kitchen, I went to put one of my writing journals in it but something was amiss. My backpack was not in the chair that I had put it in. Where could it have gone to, I mean I know I was in the kitchen with it before I had to go wake Joe up. Did Ms. Patricia pick it up and put it in the front room, just to be kind at leas? I went to check there.

"What's wrong with you?" Vanessa asked as I was kneeling on the floor looking under the coffee table.

"My backpack disappeared. I know I had put it in the chair in the kitchen but now it's gone and I don't want to miss my first day of school."

"It's school. What's so special about school?" She asked.

"Well, this is the first time I'll be going to a school with friends. This is actually one of the first times I have been happy about school in general."

She looked me over. "Are you going to go to school wearing that?" She asked, motioning to my cargo pants and oversize shirt. "Don't you want to make an impression on people?"

"I'm not interested in that." For reasons beyond what I was willing to share with her, I didn't want to get into it much.

"Whatever, it's your pathetic life. I'm just warning you, scrubs like you don't survive in our school, you need to have the best. And let me tell you now, I am the best. If you acknowledge me, if you say hi, I won't respond. I have an image to keep up with. I don't need you ruining it for me."

And like that, she walked out of the room. I stood there, I was also trying to comprehend what just happened. Then years of experience told me, no one wants to be associated with a foster kid. Just because I didn't have family that would take me didn't give them the idea that I was worthless.

"Just so you know, Vanessa ditched your stuff out front." Summer mumbled as she walked through with her stuff. "Maybe you should have kept it picked up."

Did she just insult me? I wasn't sure but I decided to go and check to see if Summer was telling the truth.

Sure enough, there was my backpack and the contents strewn out on the front lawn. As I was gathering up the stuff, Ms. Patricia came out with Myritza, apparently they didn't know where I was and decided to come look.

"Annie, what happened?" Ms. Patricia asked, causing me to look up.

Myritza came to help me pick up my stuff. She didn't ask me if everything was okay, she didn't ask if she could help, she just did it.

"Nothing, I was just…" how do I explain why all my stuff was strewn around the front yard. "Well, I was looking for something in my backpack and it just spilled open and out."

"You were looking for it out here?" She silently motioned to the front yard.

Great, me and my lying skills were less than par at this point.

"I was going to put my backpack in your car so I knew where it was but I went to look for a notebook and then splat, everything spilled out all at once."

"It is an old backpack, Mom." Myritza added, handing my some of my pens and pencils. "Good thing you didn't have your laptop in here, otherwise that would more than likely be ruined." She looked at Vanessa and Summer as they came strolling out of the house with smiles on their faces. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing." Vanessa tried in vain to hide the smile. "It's just, well, she sure is clutz."

"For that remark, Vanessa, you're joining Summer on the school bus. Where is your brother?" Ms. Patricia asked, crossing her arms.

"I'm right here." Joe burst from the house, managing to close the door behind him. "Are you ready, My?"

"Yeah. Sorry if I can't…" She had turned back to me as I shoved the last bent notebook into my backpack. "Sorry."

"It's no big deal, Myritza. Go, or you're going to be late for school." I motioned for her to leave.

"I'll see you there. Hopefully we have classes together." Joe said, patting my shoulder and then heading to his car with Myritza.

I turned back to see that Ms. Patricia was in a heated argument with her two daughters. "I don't care, Vanessa. This is not the way for you to act. She is here, she is staying."

"I don't care, Mom. She is nothing but a homeless brat. So what if she is some sort of published author, she isn't better than me." Vanessa yelled, heading off towards the bus. "I can't help it if she is a klutz."

That's how she left that morning. Summer didn't really say anything else to me, just followed her sister out to the street so that they could wait for the bus that would take them to school. Me, I got into Ms. Patricia's nice family car and heading off to where I would be going to school, at least for a little while.

* * *

By the time that I got to Pensacola Union High school with Ms. Patricia, there was about twenty minutes until school officially started. Finding a parking spot took all of five minutes, but that left fifteen minutes for us to finish getting me registered and then off to my first class.

Principle Danna Williams was a stocky woman, with bright blond hair and a pension for wearing pink, in various shades of it.

"Ah, so you're the talk of the high school." She smiled at me when Ms. Patricia handed my records from my previous school to her. "I heard that you were published."

"Once, for a contest." I answered truthfully.

"Well everything seems to be in order." Mrs. Williams answered, looking through the folder. "Let's see what we can do for you for classes. You seem to be in AP English though. And since you are a published teenager, I am going to give you a creative writing class for you elective."

"Cool," was my only response. I could never go wrong with a creative writing class.

Once everything was printed out, I was given a note to my first class teacher, Mr. Scott. I said bye to Ms. Patricia, who insisted that she wasn't going to leave without a hug. I did feel a bit odd about hugging a woman that was obviously not my real mother in front of strangers, but because she was technically my guardian, I felt compelled. She and Sika were trying so hard to be nice to me, to welcome me into the family. The least I could do was hug the woman.

"I told Joe to wait for you after school today." Ms. Patricia said.

"Okay, ma'am. Where?"

"Out at the football fields. He has practice today and Myritza and Vanessa also have their cheerleading practice today. I hope you don't mind getting a ride with them."

"Sure, that's fine." I nodded.

"Okay, bye Annie. And have a nice day at school."

Well that was all over and done with. Now I just had to find my class.

I ran right into someone, causing me to stumble back. The guy was huge, just like Joe but he had red crew cut hair. For a moment I thought of the description of one of the Weasley characters from the Harry Potter franchise. Don't ask me which one, I wasn't sure myself. This guy was tall and massive, with pale creamy skin.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to run into you." I said, adjusting my backpack on my shoulders.

"No problem. You must be new here." He smiled at me, a tweak at the corner of his mouth really. "I'm Brandon Kellett, the big man on campus. Well, in the halls at least. Who are you?"

"Annella Grange."

"Strange name, strange clothing." He looked me over, causing me to cross my arms over my chest and giving him a glare. "Sorry, I didn't mean to insult. We don't really see chicks that dress like guys around here. They usually turn out to be dikes, you know."

"Well, I'm not lesbian." I squared my shoulders before glancing down at the class list in my hand. "If you're such a big man in the school then maybe you can help me look for Mr. Scott's room."

"What do you know, I'm heading in that direction. He's my first class of the day. But be warned, he likes to give out spelling tests left and write. He is an English teacher after all."

"Whatever you say." I motioned for him to walk on, so that I could follow him.

Right off the bat I realized something, Brandon Kellett really was big man on campus. While we headed down one of the main halls in the single story high school, I noticed how some of the girls reacted around Brandon. They waved, giggled if any of them caught a look from him. And I felt like a shadow all of a sudden.

"Plan on missing practice again, Brandon?" I heard Joe speak up from a nearby locker.

Him and his buddies, the ones I met before, were hanging around one of the lockers. There was Kevin, Mike and Sam, a defensive lineman, a defensive running back and something else I could not pin point. Joe was still working on field positions with me when it came to football. The four football players looked at the guy I was following, and then the bigger Samoan noticed me.

"Annie, what's up?"

"I'm looking for Mr. Scott's room. Brandon said he could get me there." I stepped up to Joe. "Hi, guys."

"Hi, Annie." The three of them chorused.

"I thought your name was Annella." I glanced at Brandon when he spoke. "I kind of like Annie better."

"Only real friends can call me Annie. You're stuck with Annella until I get to know you better." I responded, which earned another tweaked looking smirk from him.

"Oh I can't wait for that to happen."

"Dude," Kevin spoke up, pushing himself off the lockers. "That was gross coming from you. Show her some respect."

"Why?"

"Females deserve the respect of men." Joe added, tugging me towards his side, away from Brandon. "Come on, Annie, I'll take you to class."

"Joe I don't need a babysitter. I can…"

"Yeah, we'll walk you." Mike spoke up, the sandy blond of the group. He was also the shortest, about five foot eight or something like that.

Glancing at Brandon, there was not much I could say in the matter. Seeing Joe get defensive over me, with some guy I didn't know, it was alarming. But still, Brandon followed us to home room, where I met up with Mr. Scott.

Ah, Mr. Scott. Mr. Peyton Scott, he was an older gentleman with grey coming in around his ears. When I walked in, he had a warm smile that I instantly like. Could someone tell if another person was nice or not just by facial expressions. I made a temporary mental note because that would definitely work for me in my writing style. And with this being Senior English, AKA AP English, I was in a league of my own. For one thing, Mr. Scott already knew who I was.

"Well if it isn't Ms. Grange. You out shined our contestant in that teen writer's contest." He smiled at me, holding a hand out for me to shake.

"Uh, I wasn't aware I was a big deal around here." I answered, shaking his hand anyway.

"Don't be modest, you're a one in a million. And I get to teach you. That's even better. No it could be worse, I mean I could hinder you in some way." Wow, an excitable teacher. I hadn't met much of those in a while. Clearing his throat he pushed up his glasses on his nose and looked down at me. "Anyway, please take a seat in the second row at that third desk." He pointed it out to me as he noticed Brandon standing at the door, watching us. "Mr. Kellett, you finally decide to join us today?"

Not replying, Brandon walked in, took a seat and leaned back in it. He was in the fourth row, towards the back. Good, I didn't want to have to deal with him being next to me.

But then it occurred to me, I had an entire day to deal with.

Just great if you ask me.

* * *

**Man I so want to keep this rhythm going. If I keep at it I may just get this story finished in time for Christmas, who knows.**

**Anyway, how did you guys like it? Let me know. Thanks.**


	5. Chapter 5

As I was handing in my spelling quiz, the bell for the end of the class rang. There was a lot of words reference to plays, plays I knew all too well of. Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, some of the best playwrights ever written. There was even references to Dickens' Christmas Carol. Though not a playwright itself, it was created into various versions throughout it's existence as a book.

"All right class, tomorrow we're going to start on Shakespeare, so you better brush up on your plays by then." Mr. Scott said as we were gathering our things up to leave.

"Parting is such sweet sorrow, isn't it?" I asked him, partly out of habit and partly because it seemed to fit the moment.

Being a foster kid, it gave me ample time to read just about anything and everything within hands reach. I was a popular sight at the library back in my area of Miami.

"But alas, we shall see each other in the morn, Lady." He bowed to me, causing a laugh to escape from me and some of the kids in the room.

It was cool that Mr. Scott was such an entertaining person. Most of the teachers I had previously were more interested in school ending for the day rather than just trying to teach. I have had that experience before. No one wants to deal with a foster kid. I was unwanted, so why would they want to help me learn something?

Thankfully I was the only one in my math class. What I mean is that there was no one there that I knew so I didn't have to deal with drama. Math with Mrs. Olsen was okay, nothing I didn't know already at that point. But the class after math was PE with Mr. Olsen. Husband and wife teachers? Hey, that's actually kind of cool.

I get to the girls' locker room to talk to Ms. Taylor, the other PE teacher. Two classes went on at the same time for PE. With it being the first of December even the locker room had some retro looking Christmas decorations going on. There was even a poster up for the Winter Solstice Dance.

"Um, hi." I said stepping into the enclosed office.

The teacher was a younger woman, she was not in her thirties it looked like with a lean physique or something like that. She was typing at a computer but looked up when I spoke. She had these big blue eyes that it was a shock she was a teacher, she was a beauty queen of teachers.

"Can I help you?" She asked and I could pick out an accent, not southermalln but English.

"Yeah, uh, I'm the new student here." I answered. "In my last school there was a dress code for PE. I need to know what I can or can't wear for gym class"

She stood up, looking me over. "What size are you?"

"Uh, ten in pants and I'm a small in tops." I answered.

"I think there is a uniform that you can fit into." She went to the nearby cupboard in her room and opened it.

Pensacola Union High School had red and gold colors, I think they were called the Mustangs. She handed me a pair of shorts and a shirt with the Mustangs logo on it. It was a horse head similar to the Denver Bronco's logo but it had a red horse and golden main. I learned this from Joe when he had mentioned his school's football team.

"You're not in my class, are you?" Ms. Taylor asked.

"No, ma'am, I'm in Mr. Olsen's class."

"Ah, I see. He's a good teacher, along with being the coach of the football team. Here is your lock for your locker. Better go change, class will be starting soon." She said, nodding out to where the lockers were. "That sticky note is the number for the lock you will be using."

"Okay, thank you, Ms. Taylor."

There were other girls in the locker room, all getting ready for their class. And who strolls through the doors, as I was standing in shorts and my bra, but Vanessa and a gaggle of giggling girls. She glanced at me but pretended to turn her attention to her friend that was squealing in excitement.

"He asked if he could sit at our table for lunch. Can you believe that?" The black hair girl asked Vanessa.

"Brandon Kellett, the best man on school grounds." Vanessa swooned, running her hand over her hair in a dramatic manner.

Ah, the local celebrity. Wait, what happened to Joe? Wasn't he a famous kid or something?

"Hi, you must be new." One of the girls, a sandy blond, from the group that Vanessa walked in with said as she came up to her locker. "I'm Sandy Wilson, it's the hair right?" She mused it around, with her hand. "Anyway, welcome to Union."

"Thanks." I replied, momentarily thinking that this girl was off her rocker. She was as nice as Myritza. She was so darn bubbly. I could only deal with so much in one day. "I'm Annella Grange."

"You know your last name sounds like Granger, right? From the Harry Potter books."

"Yeah, I get that a lot." I said as I shoved the last of my stuff into the locker.

"What does Annella mean?"

"I think it's a variant of the name Anne."

"So what does Anne mean?"

"I think it means eagle or something like that. It was a popular name for a queen you know." I said, trying to rack my brain for useless facts that I could come up with in this case. "Anne became more popular in the Nineteen Century."

"Cool." She said as she started to get ready for class.

* * *

By the time I got out to where Mr. Olsen's class was being held in the main auditorium, there was also Ms. Taylor's class. She had the junior class, which is where Joe was siting. Unfortunately for me, Vanessa was in my class, but the up side was that Sandy was also. We lined up in rows on the basketball court as our teachers did roll call on all of us.

Except, my name wasn't called.

"Who did I miss?" Mr. Olsen asked.

"Me, sir." I raised my hand.

"Me who?" He retaliated, smirking.

"Annella Grange, I just transferred here from Miami."

"What brings you here to Pensacola?" He asked as he wrote my name down on his attendance sheet.

"Just moved here." I said that, not making any reference to anything. There was a bit of secrecy that I wanted to keep, and I'm sure Vanessa would have liked that a lot.

"Well, I hope we get to see more of you." There was a muffled huff from someone that I was turned out to be Vanessa.

Ms. Taylor was still going on with her attendance list, and glancing over I saw Joe looking my way. We shared a smile before we each turned back to our teachers as they made an announcement.

"After we do our track warm up we're going to put the Juniors against the Sophomores in a softball match. So after we're done stretching, and the track, then we're going to head out to the baseball fields to finish out the rest of the class." Mr. Olsen said.

Oh goody, on my first day here and I am put up against Joe, a defensive linebacker. I was not good with sports, all I wanted to do was sit on my but and write. Was that such a bad thing?

The stretching part wasn't so bad. Actually I kind of liked it. I would glance over at Joe and we share grins in our pretzel sitting position. Still, it was good to know that he was there to hang out with. And I was right, as we were preparing to go for our one lap run around the track outside Joe appeared at my side.

"How's the first day been for you, Annie?" He asked, glancing ahead at his sister as she walked like the queen next to Mr. Olsen.

"Nothing too strange. Though Sandy seems to be a bit…too bubbly for my taste. But she's a nice chick." I said, motioning her to the gaggle of giggly girls up ahead with Vanessa. "If you're wondering about Brandon, don't be. He never spoke to me during English class or after it. What is his big deal, anyway?"

"Big deal for a big head. I think his dad is the mayor or something like that." Kevin said, coming up to us. "Anyway, he's just got this holier than thou attitude because he's quarterback and it is probably the only thing he's good at."

"Well from how he treated me, he's big pain in the ass. Why do these girls go for him?" I asked, motioning to the group I had seen earlier.

"Because, he's famous." Joe replied.

"So is your family, I don't see anyone trying to get your attention."

And at that moment I hear someone say, "Hi, Joe." It was a dark skinned girl as she passed our group. She was a little bit taller than me and had ear length pitch black hair, much like Joe's.

"Hi, Jess." He replied giving her a wave.

"I stand corrected. Girlfriend, Joe?" I asked, looking up at him.

His face darkened a bit. Yeah, there was something going on there, something that he hadn't told me. It wasn't that he should have told me he had a crush, I mean I had only been with this family for a few days but come on. If he liked someone, I wouldn't have objected.

"Just a possibility." Joe replied briskly.

"Him and Jess have sort of been dancing around the whole dating thing since Freshman year. He doesn't have the balls to actually ask her out." Kevin leaned in so that he could whisper. As a result, Joe easily reached around me and shoved his friend. "What's it's true."

It was nice that I could fit in with Joe and his friends easily enough. Even though running track was not my favorite thing, running in general was not what I liked to do. Nevertheless I barely managed to make it around the track itself. Mr. Olsen wasn't barking orders like Ms. Taylor was, but it was still hard. I didn't have the endurance that others apparently had.

"You did great, Annie." Joe said as he waited for me at the end of the track.

"Oh shut up." I mumbled, passing him.

"No, I mean it, Annella." He got in my way. "I'm proud of you."

"I'm sorry, Joe." I sighed, wiping at the sweat on my forehead. "I'm tired, I smell and I haven't done more than that. Don't even think about hugging me, because I think that's against the rules."

He smiled as we fell into step with each other as we headed down to the baseball field on the south side of the school. Once all the kids had been gathered into two classes again, Joe and Kevin on one side and Vanessa and I on the other. Vanessa and I stood well apart from each other. If she wanted no part in my presence I could do that for her.

"All right, it's going to be Juniors against Sophomores in a game of soft ball." Mr. Olsen told the class. "And Sophomores are at bat first. So, Juniors, grab mitts and get into your places."

Okay, I could understand baseball better than I could understand football. It was the one sport I did understand and could actually moderately participate in. At least I could hold a baseball bat correctly, unlike Vanessa who it appeared that she couldn't hold it up properly, like the bat was too heavy for her. I mean she was a cheerleader.

"Come on, Vanessa!" Joe called from the field. "You can do it."

"Shut up, Joseph!" She yelled back, glaring or what I thought was a glare, at her brother.

Needless to say, the cheerleader had gotten her three strikes and then she was out. After a base hit from a sophomore guy, it was my turn.

No, I'm not going to say that I was the best player on the sophomore team, but I proved myself. I held the bat up properly, I led with my left foot pointing out to give myself a good balance. No longer was I in a place where I had the control, there was a chance that I could strike out and then if the sophomores got another strike we would be out in the field. I had to at least give us a chance.

"Don't screw up, Foster Kid." Vanessa called, just as the ball was thrown.

I swung wrong, missing the ball entirely. Turning to look at her, she had her arms crossed over her chest and looking smug.

"I'd tell you to blow off but I'm sure you probably already know what to do." I retorted without thinking really. There was so much I could handle from Vanessa in one day.

"That's enough, Ladies." Ms. Taylor called out from the referee position behind the catcher. "This is a game, let's have some fun."

Turning back to Mr. Olsen, I focused again. Planting my feet right, positioning the bat at shoulder height. I took a few deep breaths, focusing and waited. When the pitch came, I lifted my left foot slightly and pivoted. When I heard the crack of the bat connecting with the ball, I watched seeing it going through the air. And then I was off. I went to first, looked around as the boy headed off for third so I took off for second and when the boy got to home, as the outfielders were scrambling to get the ball into play I stopped at third.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Ms. Taylor yelled.

When I looked back towards the group of sophomore students, I could see Vanessa glaring at me.

This was not the day I had planned on having. And it still wasn't over yet.

* * *

**This came out a little better than what I had anticipated. What do you guys think?**


	6. Chapter 6

By the time PE class ended, well needless to say Ms. Taylor's class beat out Mr. Olsen's class in that softball game. I had been good at bat but some of those cheerleaders weren't very sportsman like. I mean it was like they were more interested in standing back and doing nothing. And I am the kind that did not want to exercise but I found that I really liked soft ball. It was not as bad as trying to run track.

"What was that out there?" Sandy asked as we were taking off our gym cloths.

"What was what?" I asked, pulling out my oversize shirt.

"Vanessa and what she called you. Is it all true? That you're a foster kid?" She asked as she pulled her shirt over her head.

"Yeah, is that a problem?" I asked, looking at her with raised brows.

"No, no. It's just, well, you don't look, I mean…" she fidgeted with her own nice shirt. I was a scrub compared to her, she just didn't want to admit it I was sure of that.

"You should go be with your friends. You wouldn't want to tarnish your squeaky clean persona. Clearly, cheerleaders are higher in standards than poor broke kids with no families."

"I live with my dad because my mom ran off with some other guy. I haven't heard from her since I was six." Sandy blurted out.

Now it was my turn to be a jerk to someone. Good job, Annie, I told myself. "Sorry, I guess I have issues with people. I've lived this life since I was two. Some times it is hard to tell who is a true friend and who isn't."

She shook her head as she took out her shorts. You know the kind of shorts that were short enough to be proper for the dress code but still sexy. Florida weather is usually calm and warm all year round, but then there were days when it went chaotic.

"Hey, it's cool. No one can be like Vanessa, you know." She nodded over to the captain of the cheerleaders.

I was not going to mention that I was living with that girl for the time being.

"Yeah, I know. So, do you have lunch next?"

"Yeah but the cheerleaders like to sit together. I mean, you're great and all, but it's just," she glanced at the rest of the group.

"Yeah, I get it. I'm not hurt by it. Anyway, maybe I can weasel my way in with the football team. I'm trying to get my foot in the door with being Joe's friend."

"How did you meet Joe?"

"My social worker is friends with his parents." I left that short and sweet.

"Cool."

Outside of the locker room doors, there was Joe and Kevin, waiting for me. Vanessa and her group left, ignoring me. Maybe she told them to do that, but then again I was more than happy to hang out with Joe.

"See you around, Annie." Sandy said.

"Sure thing, Sandy." I waved after her, noticing Kevin's look. Once she was out of ear shot I spoke up. "You're being too obvious, Kevin."

"What?" He responded, his attention snapping back to me.

Joe and I laughed at him. Joe clapped a hand on his shoulder and declared that it was time for lunch. Good, I could sit with Joe and not feel like I wasn't welcomed at this school.

As we were standing in line I remembered a phone call I had gotten the other day. "Hey, Joe, Miami Sun wants me to publish another short story for them. A Holiday thing."

"Christmas?"

"Sort of, they want a Winter Holiday story, integrating Hanukkah and Christmas together. Or something like that. I have a deadline to keep and I don't know if I will be able to keep it."

"Well it's the second of December, can you make it by Hanukkah time?" Kevin asked.

"I think so. It's supposed to be a short- short story at least. It's just getting the inspiration to do something like that. I don't really know what Hanukkah is. I may have to go to the school library and figure it out."

"That's a good idea." Joe nodded. "I thought you were working on something right now."

"It's a novel and it's nowhere near finished." I remarked as I grabbed a tray.

The cafeteria had a high open glass ceiling. The sky was spotted with white fluffy clouds and the sun was high up with them. Another nice warm day in sunny Florida.

"Hey, Annie." Brandon said, walking towards me with his tray of food.

Joe was in the middle of sitting down with the football team that had the same lunch as us. Kevin and maybe five other guys I didn't really know. They obviously didn't have their fellow teammate in their good graces.

"Come sit with me." Brandon said, not giving me a chance to reply to his previous statement. "The cheerleaders won't mind."

"Uh, actually, I'm covered." I nodded back towards Joe and Kevin, and Mike since he just showed up with his own tray of food. "But maybe some other time. It's just that I am new here and I kind of want to stick to the people I actually know."

"Sure, well, I'm going that way." He actually winked at me before heading off to the cheerleaders' table.

"What does he want with you?" Joe asked as I approached the football table.

"I think I'm the only one that won't swoon over his passing by." I said as I sat next to Kevin and across from Joe, the others gathering around. "Thanks for letting me sit here, guys."

"Any friend of Joe's is a friend of ours." One of the other players said.

As we were eating, I was facing in the direction of where the cheerleaders were swooning around Brandon, like a God of the Earth man. Really, he was lapping it up like a dog. But Sandy was sitting on a table near them, alone. She was knocked out of the group over a guy. That's not the right thing to do.

"Hey, guys, there's enough room over here for another body, right?" I asked.

"Sure, I guess. Why?" Joe asked.

"Well, the Queen kicked out one of her drones, and she's sort of cool. I figured it would be nice to include Sandy in on a group."

Joe sighed. "I have no idea what my sister's issue is. She just seems to be on a rampage right now. If you think it's a good idea…"

"I know what it feels like to be unwanted, Joe. You know that. I just don't want her to feel worthless, like how I felt so many times before." I stood up from the bench seat and walked away from the table.

It seemed to me like Sandy really needed a friend, and since she was considered a friend to me, well it was a matter of me accepting that fact. And at that moment I did.

"Look who we have here. It's Foster Kid." Vanessa said, causing the other girls to snicker.

If Brandon looked at me strangely I didn't notice it as I turned to the lone table where Sandy was sitting. "Hey, Sandy, want to sit with me and Joe? We've got plenty of room."

"No, I'm fine here." She then proceeded to glance over at her so-called friends.

"Yeah, right. Look, you're cool, and don't tell him that I told you, but Kevin sort of has a thing for you." I leaned in, lowering my voice slightly but I could see the awestruck look on the other cheerleaders' faces, even Vanessa's. "So come on, string the guy along with your feminine ways. You're so bubbly and cheerful, even Santa's elves don't share your enthusiasm."

Then Sandy broke out into a smile. She picked up her tray and with me at her side she and I headed back to the table where Joe and the other football players were sitting. At that moment, I felt like I had just done the best thing in the world for someone.

"Hey, guys, this is Sandy Wilson. You probably already know Joe, and Kevin, this is…" and I began naming off the guys that were sitting at the table. "There's enough room here for another body. Sit down and enjoy good company. Okay, now I'm being too dramatic for my own good."

At least she didn't have to deal with the other cheerleaders.

* * *

"This is the most fun I've had in a long time." Sandy said as we walked together through Union High. "Isn't it cool that we have the same creative writing elective?"

"Besides Myritza, I didn't think there would be others interested in writing like I am." I admitted.

"Are you and Myritza close?" Sandy asked as she stopped in front of Mr. Wu's door.

"I think she considers me almost like a sister." I answered when we walked into the room. "Speak of the Devil and he shall appear. Myritza, what brings you to this class?"

The class was set up with two tables pushed up against each other. Myritza was sitting alone at one group of four seats near the front of the class when Sandy and I got in. She looked up when hearing me speak and then the Freshman nearly shot up out of her chair and came to hug me.

"Oh my God, you're here. Hi, Sandy. I didn't know you were taking this class, Annie." Joe's sister said looking back at me.

"Apparently we three have the love of writing in us." Sandy replied. "Lets all sit together, unless we have assigned seats. We can talk together."

So we took up one section of the tables in the room waiting for Mr. Wu, our teacher, to come in. By the time he did, well I knew for a fact that this was not like any Asian stereotype that some writers wrote about. Mr. Wu didn't have that thick Asian accent, nor was he like a whiz in electronics or anything like that. He was tall, thin, yes, but he wore a nice school suit with a thin black tie. And for an Asian man he was taller than six feet, maybe six foot one. Aside from that, he was good.

"Today, I am going to give you a project that needs to be done before winter break starts. It has to be a holiday short story. Today we are going to brainstorm ideas with each other and then I expect a page rough draft done by tomorrow." Mr. Wu said. "It has to be a winter holiday story, any winter holiday short story."

Really, I was just talking about this with Joe. I had a deadline due just about the same time as this. So, I could easily kill two birds with one stone. I can write one story and turn it in for a job and for a homework assignment.

"I think it would be cool to have a conversation between a person from a Christmas standpoint and a Hanukkah standpoint." I said. "But I'm not well versed on what Hanukkah really is."

"Hanukkah is the holiday in which Jews celebrate for the miracle of light. It is when a war broke out and when the Jews won against the Greeks, they found their sacred temple ransacked and in shambled. They only found one flask of oil to light the sacred lamps, so they did anyway. Well the oil lasted for eight days and nights. That's why Hanukkah is called the Celebration of Lights." Sandy spoke up.

Myritza and I looked at the sandy haired cheerleader. Well you learn something new every day.

"My mother was from a Jewish family."

"Oh, wow. That's so cool. I guess you can tell what you think Christmas is, right?"

"Yeah, I know about it." Sandy nodded at Myritza's question. "But doesn't the holidays seem too money driven lately?"

"Oh yeah." I said. "Buy the best and the best price. Can't go wrong with that. Most stores get more visitors at this time of year. What I try to do is go to small stores in Miami, and buy something small. That way I am not spending too much money and the money is going to a store that actually has good things to buy."

"We should try that this year. Mom and Dad always gives us fifty bucks to go out shopping for the family. It's to teach us responsibility for our money, you know. Can't go over a set price."

"I would like that, but I don't have the money. Dad tries, but sometimes it's not enough to keep us afloat every month."

"Hey," I leaned over to Sandy, knowing that look on her face. "I have had it worse, trust me. You have family, both of you have a family that loves you. I was abandoned. Most Christmases I was never given gifts. As long as you have your Dad then that's the best gift you can get, right?"

"Yeah, you're right. Christmas is so superficial, you know."

"Hey, this morning I had a spelling quiz with Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol involved in it. What would the Three Spirits say about the holidays now?"

"Well Christmas Future wouldn't say much of anything. He's the creepy one everyone is afraid of." Myritza said.

"Christmas Past would complain how Christmas in the past would have been different." Sandy said.

"And Christmas Present will have been turned from a fat Santa looking guy to a woman with shopping bags." I finished, jotting it down. "How would Hanukkah fit in?"

"I think Judah should be there, Judah was one of the people in the Temple of Judea when the miracle happened." Sandy said, also jotting down some notes.

"So the three spirits of Christmas, a Jewish Hero, if we add Santa Claus we'll be rolling in characters, wouldn't we?" Myritza glanced at me as Mr. Wu wondered by our table.

"Christmas Present could be seen as Santa Claus, as well. Oh, a mall Santa, that makes more sense. It shows how traditional changes to modern and the future is as silent as ever. And Judah doesn't understand how a sacred holiday like Christmas could become so commercialized."

"So, where should this be taking place?" Sandy asked.

After a brief pause from Myritza and I, we all sort of looked at each other as if we came to the same conclusion.

"New York." We chorused, snickering as if this was the most funniest thing to have.

In no time we got the gist of the story down, in terms that we each liked. We liked this idea of showing how tradition was dying out, that there was no more spirituality to Christmas, not that Hanukkah was better than Christmas. But because of the whole shopping frenzy during this time of year thoughts of other people were less and less. It's all about the Me Factor. Me, Me, Me, and I didn't care for that much. All I wanted for Christmas was a family of my own. Was that too much to ask?

I didn't think so at least.

* * *

**I am not well versed with Hanukkah, I didn't even know how to spell it until I went to spellcheck. But what little I did find out was through Wikipedia. **

**Anyway, what do you guys think? ****Thanks for reading. More to come soon.**


	7. Chapter 7

"I'll see you after school," I told Myritza and Sandy as we exited Mr. Wu's class to leave for our next separate classes.

"You will?" Sandy asked.

"Yeah, Joe has practice today and since he's taking us home afterward I have to wait around for that. But it will give me a chance to get some of my homework done in the process." I responded before waving at them and walking off.

I had Sophomore Biology for fifth period, which wasn't so bad. Instead of thinking about this stuff like homework assignments and stuff like that, I thought about it as gaining knowledge for writing. That's how I saw all my classes. Sure English and my creative writing class could be my base of using the skill, but I could also use the others. Like if I was writing about certain sports, say softball I could add in the details to my story. If the Main Character, called MC sometimes, needed to do a math equation, or use fractions in baking, then Math would be a good thing to know to do that. There is even an entire genre to History, it's called Historical Fiction. A lot of great writers have written about history through the eyes of people in the past. Mists of Avalon told how the Christians were slowly starting to make Ancient European beliefs obsolete through the telling of King Arthur and Merlin.

But it's how I use my school work to get to the point of the story. I use school to write, also I use real life to write what I experience.

And so, by the time I got out of my sixth period history class, I had ideas of what to do with my story. Since I was not registered for a bus pick up yet I had to go to the football field and wait on Joe. As I walked through the halls of the school with one intent on mind, to get out of it, I kept noticing the changes in the wall decorations. They were about what was called the Winter Solstice Dance. I had never been asked out to a dance before, which was a good thing because wearing formal attire was never my thing. Regardless of my issues, and my preference for baggy boy cloths, I had hoped that someone would just take that time and ask me out. What was I doing wrong?

The football field was actually in the center of the track to save on space I guess. There was the typical metal bleachers for people to sit on and watch what was going on.

I just got down to the fields right when Mr. Olsen was bringing out the footballs and cones for warm up.

"Need any help, Mr. Olsen?" I asked as I stood next to the first level of the bleachers.

"Oh, Grange, it's you. What are you doing here?"

"Joe Anoa'i said that he was going to bring me home, I just have to sit through football and cheerleader practice first. So did you need any help?"

"Sure, just take these cones and line them up on these lines here."

"The yard lines. How many to a line?"

"Six on each line should be good. Aren't you in my wife's math class?" He asked, looking at me as I started towards the field.

"Yes, sir, I think I am." I said over my shoulder.

I was bored, and I always helped where and when I could. Even though I didn't know anything about football the least I could do was ask the coach if he needed some help.

The football field was backed up to the school where the auditorium doors were. So after I had helped Mr. Olsen set up the cones for the football team warm up session, and as I was heading back to the bleachers one bubbly cheerleader ran up to me. If she was any better I would say she would have been good at tackling.

"Oh My God, you won't believe what just happened." Sandy said, stepping back from me, only to hold me at arms' length.

"From the sounds of it you were asked out." I replied. "And it's by Kevin I'm guessing."

"How did you know?"

"Sweetie, he was staring at your ass when you left PE today. And from the look he was giving you, he'd been staring for a long, long time."

"Really?"

"I'm a writer, I know how people stare at others for different reasons."

"He asked me out to the Solstice Dance. Isn't that great?"

"Uh, yeah. That's great, I'm really proud for you, Sandy." I said, looking over her shoulder. "Looks like the rest of the squad is coming. Is Ms. Taylor you coach?" It was funny seeing the younger teacher strolling out of the school building with a bulk of the cheerleaders in tow. And just like Sandy the rest of the squad were wearing their cheerleader uniforms. "Myritza looks so grown up." I said.

She did. The red and gold colors of her uniform complimented her caramel color skin, and highlighted her hair in a way that made her more pleasing to look at than her older sister. Vanessa, it seemed was cold. Well, not in the literal sense. As she was walking she had her arms crossed, hands holding her elbows in a way like she was trying to protect herself. Protect herself from what?

"I want a good practice today, ladies. We have State coming up in January and I don't want a repeat of last year." Ms. Taylor said as they stopped in front of the bleachers.

"Yeah, she's cool. Not cold, but cool if you know what I mean." Sandy said about her coach and the PE teacher. "She likes an active lifestyle. I heard she runs to school every morning."

"Wilson, get over here." Ms. Taylor barked out, sounding more like a pitbull that anything else.

"See you later?"

"You know it." I responded as I went to sit down on the first level bleachers.

Next came the football team. From what Joe had taught me about it, football consists of one team but two sections of it, an offense and defense. Joe prevented the opposing team from scoring. Boy I hope I was right. This is why I prefer baseball to softball. And speaking of Joe, I watched him come out in his football gear, making him look even more imposing that before. Wow, he really was built in all the right places.

Shaking my head, I watched others come. Mike, and Sam and Kevin. Oh and we cannot forget the big cheese himself, Brandon.

"Hi, Annie." He said approaching me as I was digging out one of my notebooks "What are you doing here?"

"Joe's giving me a ride home. And my name is Annella."

"Sure, whatever. Anyway, are you going to the school dance?" He asked, putting his water bottle down next to me. Unconsciously I scooted away from him.

"No, I'm not. Why?"

"Well, I was thinking of having you go with me. It could really up your status in school. I mean, you don't want to be Joe's little shadow for the rest of the school year?"

Was this pay back for what happened at Lunch? I pondered that for a moment.

"If you ask me nicely tomorrow, I'm sure I'll respond nicely. But right now, you need to get to the huddle with Coach Olsen." I pointed out to the rest of the team.

Yes, he took my advice and left me. I had a great view of the cheerleaders practicing on the track while the football team worked on the field itself. And so began an eventful afternoon of practice for both the football players and the cheerleaders.

Using my math textbook as a table, I opened my writing journal for my creative writing class to the notes I had written about Hanukkah and Christmas, particularly The Christmas Carol notes. I came up with several first lines. I knew from past experience that the first line was a hook to draw readers into the story, no matter how big or small the story actually was. You want to bring the reader in first things first. Some times authors start with a section of conversation, or some start with one strong sentence before heading right into the story itself. Short story authors do this along with novel writers. The more the impact the more the chance of the readers liking the story itself.

"Come on, Ladies, you're not working on it right." I looked up from my homework.

If they were trying for that pyramid thing, I could understand why Ms. Taylor was barking all of a sudden.

"Sandy's gotten fat, that's why." I heard Vanessa say, since she was one of the pillars for a cheerleader to stand on during their stunts.

At that point I had realized that I didn't know anything about cheerleaders and what they had to go through with making their performances look so tight and secure. And as I glanced over at the football team, I realized that I didn't know much about that sport besides what Joe had been explaining. Kevin, Mike and Sam were standing on the sidelines near the track, sort of paying attention to what was going on in the field, but Kevin's head was turning almost directly towards where the cheerleaders were practicing.

"Shut it, Anoa'i. We're a team, you should start acting like it." Ms. Taylor retorted looking at Vanessa as she was holding Sandy's while the sandy blond girl stood over her head.

Was it just me or was Vanessa getting crankier and crankier. She was even barking at Myritza who was just as good as she was. Through nearly the entire practice Vanessa was talking bad about her sister and about Sandy.

Maybe it was her way at getting back at them for hanging around me.

* * *

The car ride home was long and boring. I was crammed in the backseat with Myritza, because Vanessa claimed the front passenger seat as her own. Well I couldn't say it was totally boring. I did have a nice conversation with Joe.

"When can someone get their license?" I asked.

"I got mine after I turned sixteen, why?"

"My birthday is the twenty- sixth of this month. I want to know how to drive so I don't have to ask you or your parents for a lift."

"Dad should be home, maybe he can teach you. He taught Joe." Myritza said.

Vanessa stayed quiet. Good, I didn't want to deal with her at that moment.

Joe pulled into the driveway of the Anoa'i home and we all piled out. Summer was dropped off before we got back, I think she took the school bus from her Middle School, or Junior High as some would call it. When the four of us that just got in entered the house, there was Ms. Patricia and Mr. Sika, who had come back from working at a facility where they trained wrestlers.

"Hi, Mr. Sika." I said as I closed the door behind our little group.

"How was your first day of school, Annie?" He asked.

"It was interesting. I made a new friend. She, Vanessa and Myritza are all on the squad together." I answered as I headed to the stairs to go up to Myritza's room.

"Anything else happen?" Ms. Patricia asked.

"I played matchmaker for a football player and a cheerleader."

"That was you?" Myritza asked as she followed me up the stairs. "How did you manage that?"

"I'll tell you when we get to your room."

"Our room, you mean." She countered.

I did tell her everything. I told her the looks I caught Kevin giving Sandy when we left the locker room. And How I brought Sandy over to the football table when she was kicked out of the cheer table. I even mentioned what Brandon was like that day.

"Why would he be interested in me?" I asked sitting at my desk as I booted up my laptop. "I mean it's not like I am interested in him. He's just so, cocky. And then he asks me if I am going to the Solstice Dance. What is it with him right now?"

"It's a formal dance with a winter theme. Joe went last year with a few of his football buddies. The guy has to ask the girl out. It's sort of mandatory or something like that."

"Ah. Should I accept his invitation? Brandon, I mean."

"I think Joe is going to ask out Jess this year. But…if you really want to go, I guess that wouldn't be a problem."

"I think it is. After today, I might become a target for the squad." I shook my head.

"So either way you look at it, you're screwed."

"Precisely. But going to dances was never an option. I don't have dresses, I don't really like them because I've never felt beautiful before." I looked down. "Things have happened in my life where I try to hide myself from people."

"Why would you hide yourself?"

"Two words, inappropriate touching." I said, causing her to gape at the revelation. "I don't want to talk about it, Myritza. I just thought you should know why I dress the way I do."

"So, have you been thinking about what to do with this holiday story that you've been trying to write?" She asked as I looked down at the writing journal for my creative writing class. "I saw you working during practice today."

"Uh, yeah, I got something down. I started working on various openings for the story itself. I have a jist of an idea of what I want to do, so I'm sort of writing down what happens at the beginning, middle and end."

"The three act structure, right. Mr. Wu was talking about that before we got into Thanksgiving Break."

"Yeah, something like that. Um, ah here." I reached over on top of the desk and picked up a book. "I liked this book a lot. It gives great instructions on what the three act structure is."

She grabbed the book and went back to her side of the room. "Thanks. I've been a little lost on what Mr. Wu was talking about some times. You know how it was today."

"He starts rambling when he gets exciting about something." I laughed remembering what happened.

Mr. Wu was talking about character development today in class and he went on some sort of tangent when he got to one section that he liked a lot. Sandy, Myritza and I shared a silent laugh with each other as he went on and one about something like characterization.

History didn't give out any homework, I had some for math and science but that was it. I did, however decided to brush up on my plays and Shakespeare.

"Hey, Annie." Joe said from the door. "Are you doing homework?"

"Yeah, actually I am. What can I do for you?" I asked looking at him.

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go down to the beach again. This time while the sun is out."

I glanced a Myritza, who smiled.

"I don't need help with my homework."

"Fine but for about an hour, Joe. I still have some things to do for homework." I said standing up.

I know there were a few things that I wanted to talk to Joe about.

* * *

**I am not really sure if this is the best of chapters. What do you think?**


	8. Chapter 8

Through the back door of the house, Joe and I walked across the backyard to the back gate. The wind seemed to be a lot rougher the closer to the ocean someone got. I mean it wasn't rough that day but it was cool. I had gotten used to falling in step with Joe, three steps of mine equaled one step of his. And when we stepped onto the white sand, we took off our shoes and headed down to the water line.

"How was school today?" I asked.

"Good, they decided to load us down with homework after the break. Why did you bring a notebook?" He asked me in turn.

Yeah, I had brought a notebook with me, now referred to as my Creative Writing Journal. It had my notes and stuff for class in there. It had all that I needed to start on my creative writing assignment and my deadline assignment.

"In case I get inspired out here. I used to like to write on the beach. Besides, writing is my talent." I said as I stopped when my feet hit the water.

Joe and I both stood there in the water, letting the ocean sooth our feet and cool our senses. At least for me.

"There's nothing more relaxing than being at the beach and listening to the waves crashing around." I said looking up and down the beach. "No matter how bad life was for me, coming to the beach was like coming home. It was safe. It was like home for me. It gave me the courage to do what I wanted when I wanted."

And all Joe could do was nod. "I understand." He finally said. "I know and I appreciate it."

"One time I ran away from the previous home, it was what led to me being placed here with your family." I said. "I'm only telling you this because I know I can trust you."

He looked down at me. "What happened?"

"It was a place that you hear horror stories about. The foster parents if you do something like not clean right, or something like that, you get locked in a closet and not fed or let out to go to the bathroom. I'm afraid of small dark places now."

"I'm sorry."

"Joe, it's nothing you can fix. You didn't know me then. And anyway, I'm in a better place." I told him. "I mean, I moved from a three bedroom apartment with six kids to beach front property. I get this view, I get people that actually support me. This is probably the happiest that I have been in a long time."

There was a pause between us. I reached down and picked up a shell, well a part of a shell. It was slightly crush, someone probably stepped on it. Placing it back down on the sand gently, I looked around for another shell.

"You want to know one of the better homes that I have been in, and it was one of the poorest as well. We had enough money for a gift each, there were seven of us and we didn't have enough money for a tree of decorations. So one Saturday, a bus ride and a two mile walk to a beach, the kids and I started scouring a beach in Miami, for shells and moss. We had a bucket and we filled it with shells and things that we found."

"What did you do with the shells?"

"We decorated our own little tree. It was a donated tree for low income families, I mean we did have decorations but my favorite memory was turning the sea shells into Christmas decorations. Through trial and error I was able to string some sand dollars and a few cone shells to be my own personal decorations. I decorated the sand dollars with glitter paint and swirls on the cone shells."

"Do you still have them?"

"They were destroyed." I looked down and found a shell, a sand dollar. "The last place just wanted my monthly checks. I got out of that closet and ran away, prompting a manhunt for me and a look into the home's disciplinary motives. That's why Ms. Trent sent me here, I think the last foster parents were sent to jail. I haven't really heard anything from that area of life. I don't even know where the other kids were sent off to. I'm guessing they were put into homes better than the one we had."

Out of nowhere, Joe reaches down and made me wrap my arms around his neck, then he proceeded to wrap his arms around my torso. He just wanted to give me a hug.

"You're with a family now, Annie." He said, stepping back to look at me. And then his face changed. "But what was it with PE today?"

"What do you mean?" I asked as I stepped back from him.

"Vanessa, what she was doing today during PE."

"I don't know. Today has been all sorts of a roller coaster ride. But it doesn't matter really." I tried brushing it off, along with Joe's hands. I even tried to walk away from the situation.

Joe caught my arm. "Not so fast there, Annie. What is wrong? You know that you can tell me anything."

"I doubt you would believe me, Joe." He gave me a look, a look I could not ignore. "Fine, you want to know? Your sister is the one that dumped my stuff in the front lawn."

"Why didn't you tell the truth?"

"A habit I guess. A code of silence amongst foster kids. If we rat someone out, we get in trouble for lying. So keep our mouth shut and everything will be okay. Besides, it's just a bunch of notebooks, nothing was ruined."

"I don't know, Annie. I have never seen my sister do something like this."

"It wouldn't be the first time for me. Whether you believe me or not, Joe, I have told you the truth. It's up to you to believe or not. And if not, well that's on you. I'm going back to the house, I need to finish my homework." And before he had a chance to counter, or stop me, I headed back towards the Anoa'i house, shoes, shell and notebook still in my hands.

Ditching my shoes next to the back door, I went inside and started for the stairs up to the bedroom. I had seen Summer in the kitchen with Ms. Patricia, doing math homework. Mr. Sika was probably either up in his study, or out somewhere. The last I knew Myritza was up in her room. I had no idea where Vanessa was but I was going to find out soon enough.

* * *

"Haven't you given up yet?" Vanessa asked as she was standing on the stairs that led upstairs.

I looked up at her, face hardened with anger. If I said anything right now then it would lead to a fight.

"What, are you too pathetic to say anything?" She took a few steps down to me.

"What did I do to receive this torment, Vanessa? I don't think I have…"

"You have done plenty right now. I mean, you barged your way into my house, you disrupted the flow of everything, embarrassed me during class…oh yeah, you took my man."

"Your man? What are you talking about?"

Vanessa rolled her eyes. "I mean Brandon. He asked you out to the Solstice dance."

"Yeah, so? I told him to ask me tomorrow, and to be nice about it. When I met him earlier, he basically called me a dike."

"You could definitely fit that bill." She laughed. "This is my house. You're not welcomed here. You need to leave."

Pushing by me, she went down stairs and headed for the kitchen. I felt like a real looser. Joe apparently didn't believe me when I told him the truth about Vanessa, and Vanessa really didn't want me in the house. Ms. Patricia and Mr. Sika seemed to actually care. But then again I didn't know them all to well. With Summer following Vanessa's lead, the only person I had on my side was Myritza at this moment.

Speaking of Myritza, she was still in the room doing homework. From what I saw she was working on her own Math homework and that meant I could quietly try to work on my rough draft of my story in quiet.

"That was fast." She said when she looked up at me.

"I decided to get homework done before I get behind in it. With all the moving I've done in my life, it's been hard to get work done and to stay on top of it."

"Then why are you in a senior English class?"

"Because of my love of writing, I have basically self taught myself over the years."

Myritza sighed. "Would it be insulting to say that I am glad that I have this family?"

"No, everyone should be proud of the family they are born into." I turned back to my computer. "I have to get this idea for my story down onto a document." "Yeah, that's cool." She replied turning back to her desk.

I had a CD player and a mixed CD of various songs that I had managed to keep over the years. This one was a holiday CD. Sleigh Ride by the Boston Pops was put on repeat, followed by Holy Night and various other so that I could write what I needed.

* * *

_Twas a night before Christmas when the three spirits of Past, Present and Future watched the people pass by. Lights of all sorts glittered from decorations to the lights in the windows, giving off and otherworldly glow. They came upon the one place that was even brighter than any lit up Christmas tree, Time Square._

"_Do you suppose they know or remember?" Christmas Past questioned._

"_Know what?" Christmas Present asked._

"_All the turmoil others have faced in Christmases past?" The first spirit asked._

_Per-usual, the Ghost of Christmas future remained silent. His thoughts hidden amongst the shroud that covered him. All that showed at all on him was the hands of a skeleton draped in thin skin, gray in color as if it was weathered flesh._

"_It isn't a traditional Christmas anymore." Present grabbed his beard and rubbed downward, repeating the motion a few times._

_The lone female of the group, lean and bright, with a shine to her essence, twirled around. Her long arms outstretched, feeling the cold air of winter hitting her. Future watched the antics of his two spirit friends. Times like these people lost all touch of what it means to be kind and happy. And as the mortals past he watched each._

_In this time the technology was different. Devices such as cell phones, computers, and those sort of things flooded the streets around them. If this were to continue, people would loose the light._

"_They forget the miracles this time of year holds." A new voice said, causing the three to look up._

_Judah of the Maccabees stood with them. Long past dead, as a human and a founder of the Miracle of Lights, the Jews respected him as a miracle worker. _

"_What brings you here, Judah?" Past asked._

"_Seeing the lights that make this season famous." He responded. _

_As Christmas Present continued to rub his beard, Judah noticed something._

"_Do you not know who I am?" He asked the Christmas spirit._

"_Unfortunately this is why I am called Ghost of Christmas Present. I deal with the here and now as it were. I'm here and I'm now."_

"_Suppose that makes a bit of sense, considering that you do not know a Jewish hero."_

* * *

"Annie," I heard Joe speak up.

I held up my finger to tell him to wait. I typed in a few more words of the thought that I had going on in my head. Then I stopped my CD player and took off my headphones.

"Yeah?" I asked turning in my chair to look at him.

"It's almost dinner time, you might want to get ready for it. Dad brought back some hamburger for burgers tonight."

"I guess I am going to have to decline." I said standing up. "I need to explain this to your parents." Then I walked around him so that I could head down to the kitchen.

"What do you mean decline?" I heard him ask.

"If you come to the kitchen then I can answer that for you." I answered getting to the bottom of the stairs.

Myritza, Summer, Vanessa and the two parents were in the kitchen getting their hamburger buns ready. Joe was confused as he followed me into the kitchen. In the time that I had been in this family, they hadn't eaten beef before, not until now.

"Oh, good, you're here, Annie. Grab a bun and I'll give you a burger." Mr. Sika said.

"Actually, sir, I don't eat beef." I said, placing my hands palm down on the kitchen table. "In plain terms, I don't like it. So, I'm just going to go back upstairs to finish homework." I turned to leave.

"Kimberly said something about certain foods you don't eat." Ms. Patricia said. "Why don't you like beef?"

"Honestly I don't know. I just seem to gag anytime I eat it. No matter if it is cooked right. I can eat pork and chicken, or turkey just fine. But with beef, I just can't stomach it."

They all were looking at me, and slowly there was a snickering sound. I looked at Vanessa as she tried to cover the fact that she was laughing at me.

"Oh my God, are you serious?" She asked through her laughter. "Are you serious? You don't eat Cheeseburgers?"

"I'm telling the truth. I can't eat beef of any sort."

"Man, you're weird." Summer said as she gave her sister a high five.

"You two, stop it." Ms. Patricia looked at her oldest daughter and her youngest daughter. "It's no different than being allergic to peanuts. Is there something you would want, Annie?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Peanut Butter and jelly sandwich is always a good stand in. I can make it myself after you're done in here."

"Sure. Go get cleaned up." Mr. Sika said.

As I was leaving the kitchen, passing Joe in the process, I hear him say.

"I believe you, Annie." He said.

I turned to look at him and said, "Thanks." And like that I left the room all together.

* * *

**12/10/2013: I decided to update earlier than necessary because today is my birthday and I have not been feeling good, I'm not sure if I'll update tomorrow. **

**Anyway, what did you guys think of this installment of A Family for Christmas?**


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning I was the first one to get up at six. I got all my stuff ready, leaving my backpack in the bedroom this time. Ms. Patricia and Mr. Sika were in the kitchen when I came down to get something of a snack before school started.

"Oh, Ms. Patricia, Mr. Sika, good morning." I said as I entered the kitchen. "I got myself up this morning."

"I wish my kids would do that. I'm afraid I have to get Joe up again." Ms. Patricia said. "Anyway, is there something you needed?"

"Well, I was going to get something to eat before I had to get to school. Oh, and can I ask you two a question?"

"You already did but okay. What is it?" Mr. Sika asked.

"Can I get some better cloths than this?" I motioned to yet another combination of baggy cloths. "I don't think I give people the right idea about me."

The wife looked at her husband, who gave a silent nod. Oh no, they were going to say that they didn't have the money for cloths for me. Or that I was bad, or something like that.

"Sure, after school we can go to pick out a few outfits for you. But you look fine the way you do." Ms. Patricia said.

"Ma'am, yesterday someone told me I look like one of the lesbians at school. He said that I looked like a, well he used a different word for a butch female."

"Oh honey." She came up to me and hugged me. It felt good to be hugged by her. "No, you're just fine the way you are."

"I'm glad some people think so." I said as she pulled back from me. "But thank you."

"You're welcome. Can you wake up my son?" Ms. Patricia asked.

"Sure, I guess. I'll just make something to eat after that." I turned and left the kitchen all together.

Back up the stairs I went. Summer was coming out of her room when I headed for her brother's room. When I looked at her, Summer turned away and headed down the stairs without saying a word. Well, I know where she stood with me.

"Joe," I knocked on the door. "Time to get up."

The door flew open and there was Joe. He was actually up and dressed this morning, which sort of surprised me. He wore a dark blue shirt and some sort of faded blue jeans and sneakers. All that wasn't ready was his hair, which was standing up at different angles. Even some of it was hanging down in front of his handsome face.

I had to mentally shake my brain into proper order before I spoke up. "Hey, you're awake. I'll go tell your mom."

"Annie, wait." Joe lightly grabbed my arm, stopping me yet again. "I'm really sorry about yesterday. It's just, I've been thinking about what you said, about how homes…"

"It's nothing, Joe, nothing that can't be fixed. When I'm gone, you'll get your family back and normalcy will return."

"It won't. Not to me at least. These last couple of days have been great. You're really cool to hang out with. I keep forgetting where you've come from and what you've had to go through. It's like you've always been apart of my family even if you've been here for less than a week."

I smiled at him. "I like being apart of this family. Through the good and bad, I just want to have a family of my own. Now, stop with this sappy stuff and I'm going to go wake up Myritza and finish getting ready for school. You should, too."

And with that out of the way, I did.

By the time I arrived at school, first period was only ten minutes from starting. I got to Mr. Scott's room early, before any of the other students did. Others had started showing up by five minutes till eight and then he strolls in as if he own the place.

My take on Brandon was a bit off considering what I had experienced the previous day. He was big like Joe but not as sweet. Even though I told him ask me politely, he still had this air of over confidence in him.

"So, have you thought about my invitation to the Dance?"

"I have, but are you going to ask me again?"

"I thought I just did?"

"You're supposed to say, would you like to go to the Winter Solstice Dance with me on the twentieth, or something there of."

"Oh, okay."

Before he could ask properly, our English teacher Mr. Scott entered the room with his brief case again.

"Kellett, take your seat please." Mr. Scott said as he entered the room.

"Yes, sir." Dejected, Brandon went back to the fourth row desk that he was assigned to.

As everyone settled into the desks and when the bell rang, attendance was done and then the class started. This time I did notice that Brandon was staring a hole through the back of my head. At least while Mr. Scott was talking about Shakespeare's sonnets I could easily ignore the football player and focus on the discussion.

After class Brandon didn't approach me, he didn't stop me. I was thankful for that.

Math class was just the same as yesterday, a little boring but that was enough to deal with. Then there was PE.

Sandy appeared at her locker in the girls' locker room. "Hey, this weekend I'm going shopping for a formal gown. Would you like to come?"

"I'm not sure if I am even going." I admitted.

"Come on, even if you don't go can you come with me?"

"Are you still having issues with the cheerleaders?"

She nodded. "Yeah, sort of. I mean, before you came along I was accepted and had friends." I guess she saw the face I had because then she said, "but they were never really my friends. They pretended to be my friends but what you did yesterday was great. I mean, the guys were so nice and accepting, and Kevin…well when I finally got asked out to something I was over the moon. You really are a good friend, Annie."

"Have you started in on your Holiday Story?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, have you?"

"Yeah, but it isn't what I had planned on. I'm thinking about scrapping the idea and doing something else. I mean with the newspaper from Miami wanting me to do another short story where there are two major holidays involved, it's a little daunting if you ask me."

* * *

Nothing happened during PE. Nothing what so ever. Vanessa didn't try anything during another Junior versus Sophomore soft ball game. We lost again with the help of the girls that didn't want to participate. At least I had a couple of base hits.

"There's a rumor going around." The dark haired girl from Vanessa's group said approaching me as I was trying to get dressed in my normal. "That Brandon Kellett asked you to the dance."

"He's asked, yes." I answered.

"And you said yes, I knew it." She threw her hands up in the air. "Of all the people at Union, he asks the dike out."

If Ms. Taylor had heard this then she wasn't going to intervene. She stayed in her office doing whatever it was that she was doing. And from behind the dark haired girl I could see Vanessa smirking slightly.

"I haven't said yes. He has to ask me nicely first."

"Are you stupid?" Vanessa asked, stomping up to us. "I mean, he's the hottest guy in school. He's the star of this school, how could you not say yes? Just because he didn't ask you nicely? That's a dumb move, blondie."

I pursed my lips into a thin line. I really just wanted to get through my second day of school at Pensacola Union High without incident.

"If you know what's good for you, you will back off from my man." Vanessa quickly added.

"I can't help it if he is in my English class, Vanessa." I said as I tugged my shirt over my head and then proceeded to grab my backpack. "I can't help it if he maybe wants to get to know me, and I can't help it that you are so damned pissed off about me being here at all. But the one thing I do understand is that you're jealous."

"Jealous? Of a foster kid? Yeah right." She laughed it off. Her entourage laughed it off as well.

"Because I came in and ruined your perfect life. You have everything, you have a perfect family. But when things don't go the way you want them, you take that out on me when I've done nothing." I started for the door to the locker room but I stopped when I put my hand on the handle. "Oh, I am going to say yes to Brandon. Maybe it is time for me to be happy."

Sandy followed me out into the hall where I found Joe and friends waiting for us. Kevin brightened up when seeing my friend.

"Hey, you okay?" Joe asked as I brushed by the group.

"No, I'm not. And that's where I'm leaving it." I answered, stopping to look at him.

"Joe, hi." I stopped when I heard that girl speak.

It's not that I wasn't happy about Joe not asking me to the dance, but I felt hurt. Why did I feel hurt though? As Joe smiled at the taller girl, her beautiful curves showing under her jeans and the fact that she actually had a set of boobs, proved that I had nothing compared to her and to the others in class. I was less than perfect. Sure Brandon was an ass but he could probably be putting a front on for people. We all shared our secrets.

Sandy had Kevin now, Joe was dancing around with Jess but what about me? I had no one. I didn't even have a family to call my own. I just wanted to feel wanted and loved.

I was just getting my tray for food when Brandon sidled up into line behind me. He actually cut in front of a kid that was standing behind me.

"Hi, Annella." Brandon said leaning down to say that near my ear. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure." I answered picking up a carton of milk, white not chocolate.

"Well, the Winter Solstice Dance is coming up and I would love to invite you to come with me." I glanced at him over my shoulder. "That is if you want to go with me."

"Sure, I don't see why not." I smiled at him. "But you have to promise to be nice, Brandon. Promise?" I asked.

"Of course. I'll be on my best behavior, don't worry. Say, how about we sit down together? Just the two of us?"

Okay, now it was getting a little weird, no strange, I don't know. But it wasn't bad. Even though I was still on guard, as a personal precaution on my behalf.

"So." Brandon said as we sat at a table somewhere between the football and cheerleader table. "So, um…"

"Usually this kind of stuff happens in books. To take up some space the characters talk about themselves. So, you're a senior here at Union right?" I asked.

"Yeah, and I'm heading for the big leagues. Several scouts have scouted me out at some of our games to recruit to different colleges. What about you?"

"I'm just a sophomore, who has moved from one school to another through out most of my life."

"Why? Are you an army brat? My uncle was in the military."

"No, not the military. I am a foster kid." I said honestly, playing with the roll that was on my tray. "I've been in the foster care system for a long time now."

I tried watching his face. It was hard to tell how people react to these things. Some would say they are sorry, some wondered if I knew where my parents were and things like that. But Brandon didn't do any of that.

"Wow, must be tough some times, huh? I've heard some of the horror stories about that sort of thing." He picked up his school burger. I opted to go with a chicken nuggets that the lunch ladies were offering. "So, let me guess something about you. You don't know who to trust, huh?"

"Why would you ask that?"

"One of my friends, he graduated, was a foster kid. His parents were like some sort of drug addicts and he was taken from them. Was that the same for you?"

"I don't really know." I was hoping that he wouldn't ask me that kind of question. "Some have told me that they abandoned me when I was two, others said that I was taken from them. I don't know what to believe anymore. And the only person that I can trust is myself."

"Well that's a start. What do you think about Christmas? Or do you celebrate Hanukkah?" Brandon asked.

"I have never really had good Christmases. You? Do you like this time of year?"

"Of course. Every year I get something new and flashy so that I can flaunt in around. Makes all of these guys a bit jealous if you ask me." He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at the gathered football team. "They get jealous of me."

"Uh huh." I replied. "The dance is not all that far off. A lot could happen in that time."

"I know. That's why I'm happy that I am getting to know you now." He reached over and put his hand on top of mine. "This is a lot of fun, you know."

I smiled at him, trying not to pull away from his touch. I just felt plainly strange when he touched me.

Was that good, or was it bad? I didn't know.

At least I didn't know at that time.

* * *

**I need your honest opinions, I'm not really sure this one hit the right cord with people. I really do enjoy your feedbacks and with this one not being the kind of story I usually write, I'm starting to worry that I'm getting off base where I want to be with it. **


	10. Chapter 10

I made a choice after that Tuesday, I was not getting a ride to school anymore.

Instead of going to school with Joe, I opted to take the bus. It had gotten so thick with tension at the house that I tried different ways of keeping away from Vanessa and Summer. It started after Brandon finally and politely asked me to the Winter Dance when Brandon started showing up at the bus drop off area at school first thing in the morning and then he would take me to class. All with being nice to me.

The moment I stepped off the bus on Friday I was greeted by the quarterback of the Union High football team. He smiled at me and I smiled back.

"How was this morning?" He asked.

"It was good." I responded.

Aside from an impromptu pillow fight with Joe, it was good. I got out to the bus stop on time and got to school on time as well. So it wasn't so bad.

In the four days that I have been at Union, I refused to tell anyone about my home life. I wasn't sure if Joe had said anything to anyone about me living with his family but I knew that I hadn't spoken about it with anyone. The best that some figured out was that Joe's parents were friends with my social worker Ms. Trent. That's how I knew the Anoa'i family.

"How is that story of yours going?" Brandon asked as he opened the door to the school open for me.

I shrugged in response. "I can't seem to get the right words to flow write. I start something and then I change the idea."

"I heard that it's for the Miami Sun newspaper." He said.

"Yeah, you know I lived in Miami before coming here." I responded. "That's where I was published last."

"Did you live in some of the nicer neighborhoods. I live in a gated community." He boasted.

"No, I've never really had a nice life. I mean some families tried to do good but with money being tight it was hard but some times I would sacrifice for the younger kids."

"Sacrifice, that means you went without gifts and stuff right?"

"Yeah, I did. About a few years ago, I was in this lovely home but there were several foster kids and the woman just couldn't get gifts for all of us. I mean sure we all wanted big name gifts but to me, those kids were like my brothers and sisters. So I went without, that way the others could get something from Santa."

"Santa, wow. What was the best gift you've ever gotten for Christmas?"

"That would have to be writing stuff. I got notebooks one year. I got a journal from someone, like the Salvation Army or some sort of Holiday aid thing."

"I got a car, you know. Best thing I could think of. Oh, yeah, definitely better than anything anyone else could get."

"This isn't a competition, Brandon." I said, stopping in front of Mr. Scott's room. "You asked me what I got and I answered truthfully. It's how you say these things that makes people look at you like a jerk."

"I'm not a jerk."

"That's up for debate. You make people think you're a stuck up snob because you have this football thing, that you're richer than the rest of us. Do you have to remind everyone?"

"Why is this such a big issue with you?"

"It's such a big issue because it makes me feel bad for being a pennyless foster kid. I least I'm happy with what I have. I feel blessed to have the people I am with and I would never give up what I have right now."

I really didn't like how Brandon thought about himself. He's better than everyone else because of what he has and what everyone else doesn't. I had hoped that he would at least change his view by being around me but apparently that wasn't enough.

"You like to make people feel bad about themselves. I mean, you said I looked like a lesbian the first time you saw me. Hello, I'm still dressed the same as day one."

Just then I hear a voice. "Hey, Annie, how's it?" Joe asked walking up with Kevin, Mike and Sam, again. "Is there an issue going on?"

Joe's first period class was a few doors down from my first period. It wasn't unusual to see him around this door first thing in the morning.

"It's okay. Brandon and I were talking about Mr. Scott's lesson for today. We have to memorize a section of a sonnet for class and recite it for everyone." I answer, glancing at the other football player next to me. "Oh, just so you know. I'm taking the bus home afterward school. I'm going cloths shopping later today."

"Oh, okay. I'll let Mr. Olsen know. I'll see you at lunch." Then he looked at Brandon. "See ya, man."

"You know it." He responded.

I looked at Brandon when Joe was a fair distance away. "What did I tell you about being a jerk?"

"What? I wasn't. I, hey, where are you going?"

I stopped as I opened the door to the room. "I'm going into the class room. Unlike some people, I actually want to learn something."

He followed me into the room. There were other kids, who looked up when seeing Brandon following me into the room.

"What is your issue?" Brandon stopped at my desk.

Mr. Scott looked up from his desk when Brandon spoke. I put my backpack down on the floor and stared up at him with confidence. This probably was not one of the looks girls would give him.

"My issue is that you don't give a flying flip for anyone else. It's all about you and you alone. Even when I told you that I have nothing, you seem to always mention how much more you have than me. It's not about money, it's about so much more than that."

"What, what is it then?"

"Empathy for others would be a start. Understanding how they feel. You would never understand what it is to be in my shoes because you always have something handed to you. You've never worked hard for anything. I mean, I go out before practice and help Mr. Olsen set up for your training practices, and I will help pack things up, all on my own without being asked. I think about other people, half of the time before myself. I gave up one Christmas for my foster siblings and you go off and tell me that you got a car, just as happy as can be. I don't know who is worse, Scrouge, The Grinch or you."

I ended my tirade when I sat down in the desk. I think I got Brandon mad because he stomped off towards his fourth row desk just as the bell rang.

* * *

"Is something wrong?" Sandy asked as we were getting ready for PE. "You look like you have your mad face on."

I looked at her as I was putting my freshly laundered gym uniform on. "I just had a fight with Brandon about his behavior."

"But you're not even dating him, are you?"

"I would like to think I'm his girlfriend but it seems like he's a little kid who just doesn't understand or give a flying flip about anyone else but himself. Luckily Mrs. Olsen gave us an end chapter test to make me sort of forget about it."

"I always thought he was cute."

"It's not about looks, you know." I responded. "If things were different I would actually have loved to be with Joe." That part I whispered as I glanced back at Jess and her close circle of friends. "But I think he's already asked Jess out."

"So are you still going to the dance?"

"I don't know. If Brandon doesn't change I maybe just call it off and give Vanessa her wish."

"What wish is that?"

"Let her have Brandon. I mean, those two seem to be the best choice for each other." I said as I slipped on my shirt. "And I would have to go out to find a dress, which I don't want to do."

"You don't want to get a dress?"

"I've been going with this look for several years, it's a habit I haven't tried to break. But later today I am going to be going cloths shopping so I might find some cloths that I actually like."

She smiled. "Hey, you're a bit of a famous person here. I mean, you have been published, you are friends with the football players and you have helped around school. You're a good person, regardless of the fact that you are a foster kid."

"No matter what good I have done, why does it still feel like nothing is good enough?"

"Good enough? What's not good enough?"

"Me, I'm not good enough." I slammed the locker closed. "I'm never good enough for anyone."

"You do so much…"

"But is it enough? Is it enough for someone like Brandon to appreciate? I mean, Vanessa already makes me feel like I am not wanted."

"But you are. You are worth it all, you are appreciated."

"Then why was I abandoned?" I turned to look at her, tears glistening at the edges of my eyes. "Wasn't I good enough for my parents?"

I finally said it. The emotions I had felt just flooded forward, and I had to sit down.

"Some times it feels like I get a foot into good point, I am kicked out of it. Vanessa makes me feel like I am worthless and imposing."

"But her parents are friends with your social worker."

"That may be so but, well it's complicated with how I am living right now." Feverishly wiping my face when Vanessa entered the locker room. "Anyway, I want to get out of here and get into lineup. I'll see you out there."

The auditorium was colder than usual. Of course the weather outside was muggy so they were cranking on the air conditioning.

"Hey, Annie." Kevin called out as he approached with Sam. "How's it going?"

"Wish it was better but it's not." I said standing where I was supposed to be for Mr. Olsen's class. "Too much emotional baggage."

"Kevin!" Sandy called when she came in. I watched her run up to the taller guy. "I'm going to be looking for a Winter Dance dress this weekend."

"That's cool." Kevin rubbing the back of his neck. "I uh…"

"Come on, Sandy, you shouldn't be talking about girl stuff to guys. It goes in one ear, bypasses the brain and goes out the other ear. That's just how men are made." I turned to look at the three guys. "Sorry, but that's just the biology of a male. Nothing against you three."

"Uh huh, sure." Sam said.

"I think we just got dissed." Mike added.

"Why don't you just kick us in the crotch and get it over with?" Kevin questioned.

"Because, cutting you down to size is a more effective way to prove our point." I quipped and nudged Sandy. "You have to keep reminding him that you need to feel special. But you need to prove that he is special to. So respect the knucklehead."

"Knucklehead? Oh that's good. Noogie time!" Joe caught Kevin into a headlock and promptly ran his knuckles over the crew cut head of his friend.

"Get off me, man." Kevin fought off the six foot three Samoan teenager. "Why don't you go ogle at your girlfriend?"

"You finally asked Jess out?" I asked Joe.

"Yeah. We're going to the dance together. Are you and Brandon still going together?"

"He's acting like an ass right now but I think I made him aware that he's a less than an ideal male."

Just then Mr. Olsen called out to get into place for roll call. So the four of us split up, Sandy going over to Ms. Taylor's side of the auditorium and then me to Mr. Olsen's side.

This day, though, instead of the two classes coming together in a class versus class game, we separated. Mr. Olsen's team went out to the Tennis courts, where we split off into groups of twos against groups of twos. So it was a two on two game of tennis. Wouldn't you believe it, Vanessa and I were on opposite sides of the net. A racket was in my right hand and a ball in my left.

"Come on, lets get this thing done." Vanessa called out to me.

"Don't worry, I want this as much as you." I mumbled squaring my body up into a serving position.

Tossing the ball up, I swung as hard as I could and smacked the ball over the net into Vanessa's side of the court. If she sucked at softball then she excelled in Tennis. Naturally fast on her feet, I'm guessing because of her cheerleader abilities, she easy ran up and smacked the ball back with a thunk. My partner, Jess, ran for it and hit it back over. It got volleyed back over to my side where I promptly missed it. That gave Vanessa the point.

"Nice try, Annie." Jess said, smiling at me. "That was one heck of a hit."

"You think that was impressive," Vanessa said stepping back to the serving corner. "Watch this."

The ball sailed straight at me and I was standing in the wrong place. One moment I was fine and the next I got hit square in the face with a fast moving tennis ball. I stumbled down, well, fell down with a thunk.

"Oh my God, Annie, are you okay?" Jess asked dropping her racket and coming to my side.

I held my eye, writhing in pain while my sneakers scraped the ground in an effort to get up.

"Mr. Olsen, Annie got hit in the face with a tennis ball." Someone called out as I managed to get to my hands and knees.

Vanessa stared at me, if it was in shock or otherwise I wasn't so sure.

"Grange, are you okay?" The teacher asked jogging up to me.

"Yes, sir. I'm not that good with tennis. It was an accident."

"Sure looked like Vanessa was trying to hurt you." Jess said, glaring at the other girl.

"No, she didn't." I tried to get the blame off of her. "It was an accident. I am not very good. May I go to the nurse's office to get some ice, Mr. Olsen."

"Okay. You can go. Jess, can you take her?"

"Sure. Come on, Annie." She placed her hand on my arm and then turned me to go.

Jess and I never really had much of any chance to get to know each other. Jess would hang out with Joe, but I was sort of stand offish when it came to those two together.

"I'll just get a black eye, it should clear up by the time when the Dance happens." I said as we were in the hall that led to the nurse's office.

"She did that on purpose."

"No she didn't. I was trying to keep my eye on the ball. Vanessa may not be the nicest person but this was totally my fault. I was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Vanessa may not have been the nicest person, but I knew when to keep my mouth shut. And besides, I was sure that it was my fault that I got pelted in the face by a tennis ball.

* * *

**I would really like your honest opinion on this update. Is this a good update or is it a not so good one. I am heading in a direction towards making Annie have uncertain feelings towards Joe but I'm not sure if it's the right direction for this story.**


	11. Chapter 11

I had returned from the nurse's office with Jess in time to get changed for lunch. Sandy was there, she was dressed and ready to leave herself when I arrived.

"Oh my God, Annie, your face!" She almost yelled.

"Geez, Sandy, you'd think that I'm disfigured. It's just a bruise." I tried to act nonchalant about the entire thing. Really it wasn't that big of a deal.

"Your eye is swollen practically shut. Can you even see out of it." She lightly touched my face, turning my head so that she was looking at my swollen left eye.

"Yes, mother, I can. Now, please can I just get dressed so that I can go to lunch?" I asked stepping out of her grasp. "I just have to keep an ice pack on my face."

Jess was kind enough to hold my cloths for me when I was changing, that left Sandy to worry about me. Through my good eye I glanced at Vanessa. She stayed away from me, which I guess was a good thing. The rest of the girls in the locker room either had already left or was just plain oddly quiet. I got my stuff on and decided to head on out. Jess and Sandy followed.

"Oh my God, what the hell happened to you?" Joe asked, cupping my face in his hands.

"Not you, too." I tried shoving his hands off me. "It was an accident, Joe. I tried keeping my eye on the ball so to speak during a tennis game. I'm fine, Joe. Now let go of my face."

He did, but his concern was still there.

"Annella, what happened to your face?"

Oh great, not Brandon, too. I turned to look at him, lifting the ice pack off my eye just to give him a good look at what I was going through.

"Damn, who punched you? Was it Vanessa, she's been gunning for me ever since she made Captain this year." He said, looking down at me. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I put the ice pack down on my face again. "But it wasn't Vanessa, it was my own fault. I stepped into an oncoming tennis ball. I'll be fine. I want to eat so whoever is coming let's go."

If there was a stare off between Joe and Brandon, I wasn't sure. I was just sick and tired of people babying me, of worrying over me. I've had worse incidents than this one. I knew what I was doing.

Brandon caught up with me. "I'm going to get your tray for you." He said.

I looked at him as we walk up the sloping ramp that went from the stairs that led to the auditorium. The cafeteria was located near the auditorium so it wasn't that far from the locker rooms. I could already smell that there was pizza for lunch that day.

"Thanks," was all I said as we walked into the Cafeteria area.

I didn't want to discuss what had happened during PE. It was one of those things that no one would understand. Not from me, not from a foster kid.

"So did Vanessa really hurt you?"

"No, she didn't."

"You know you can talk to me about this stuff."

"Trust is earned, Brandon. If you understand the life that I have had then you would understand that trusting people is not my strongest asset." I admitted as we were standing in line for food.

A few people behind us was Joe and crew, Jess and Sandy as well. I probably looked weird with having to press an ice pack to my eye. But this was life, this was something that I had to deal with and it wasn't like I was worried about what people thought about me. Though once people realize that Vanessa was the one that had hit the ball into my eye I knew that I was going to have to prove that it was my fault and not hers. No matter how badly she had been treating me, it was not her fault and I knew that.

But Brandon held my tray for me and escorted me to an empty table where we usually ate at. That is until Joe and friends, Jess and Sandy sat down around us.

"Hope you don't mind." Joe said, putting himself next to me while Jess sat on the other side of him. "You're my friend, Annie. I got to make sure you're okay."

I sighed, putting down the ice pack. "Thank you, Joe."

"Not a problem, Annella." There was a dip in his voice, a dip that I caught on. He was worried, that's all I could tell. He was worried about me and I could tell he was concerned that I was not okay.

"Thanks, Joe." I looked at him. "I'd wink but I'm already doing that."

He laughed as he reached around and rubbed my back. "Good to know."

"I hear you two are going to the dance." Jess spoke up, motioning between Brandon and me.

I looked over at the redhead guy sitting next to me. "Well, I would still like to go with her if that isn't an issue with Annella. I would actually like to go out before that if you don't mind, hon."

Did he just call me hon?

"I can't, not after school today. I have to go school cloths shopping." I paused. "But, I suppose we could meet up on Saturday."

"I'll be looking forward to that." He smiled at me.

There was a low groan from various people at the table, and they didn't try to hide it. One of them happened to be Joe. If he could handle being around Brandon then I guess it wasn't such a bad thing that these guys were hanging around.

"So are you sure it wasn't my sister's fault that you were hit?" Joe asked.

"Please. Baseball is one thing, tennis is another. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time in a serve. Besides, I don't blame her."

"Even after she dumped your stuff out on the front lawn?"

I sighed. "Joe, just drop it. I don't want to be worrying about this stuff forever. So what if your sister hates me, sisters I mean. Myritza is cool but this isn't forever. I'll be gone and you can have you home back."

"You're not a burden, Annie." He responded quickly.

"Coming from my life, I am a burden." I picked up the ice pack and put it back onto my eye.

* * *

There was a rumor going around by the end of school that Vanessa had intentionally tried to hurt me. No matter what I said, it seemed like a lot of people were certain that she was a bad person. I was growing really, really tired of people thinking that she had tried to hurt me on purpose. Honestly, I didn't think she had tried to hurt me. But there was no proof besides what I kept telling people, that it was all an accident.

The ice pack had long been dumped in a trashcan between my biology class and history class. Really, that thing was starting to annoy me and it was dripping on my papers. There was no way that I was going to go through ruining something like my homework. And then there was still that issue with my assignments with the holiday topic. I still had no idea if I was doing it right.

As I waited in line for the bus to arrive after school, I hadn't realized that Brandon was approaching me.

"Annella," he said jogging up in his football gear.

The bus drop off and pick up was near the track and football field, just down the hill actually. From where I stood I could see the football team and the cheer squad practicing. So it was a little shocking to see him coming down the hill towards me.

"You need to get back to practice, Brandon."

"I asked Coach if I could come down to talk to you before you got on the bus."

"Yeah, talk to me about what?"

"This."

He leaned down to my level and pressed a kiss on my cheek. Right there in front of other people that were watching us.

"Brandon…" I jerked back from him.

"I have to get back to practice. Oh, here's my number." He handed me a piece of paper. "Call me when you want that date."

"Date?" I asked but he didn't give me an answer, he was running back up the hill towards the practice area.

Was it just me or was this one strange day? I mean, this morning I accused him of not being empathic enough of other people, and now he was considerate and concerned for me. Either he was playing with my emotions or he was actually taking my words to heart. But this is my life, my life was not simple so I was not going to take this act with a grain of salt lightly. I was going to make sure that he was true to his words.

The bus pulled into the middle school where Summer went to. She got on but much like her sister, I didn't try to acknowledge her presence. Though she is the one that spoke up.

"What happened to you?" She asked as she sat in the seat across from mine.

"I got hit in the face by a tennis ball."

"Ouch. Keeping your eye on the ball?" She snickered.

"Yeah, pretty much." I turned back to my notebook that rested on my math textbook that was on my lap.

As the rest of the kids got on the bus, I settled into trying to fix my issue with the story in front of me. I still needed to figure out how to fit Hanukkah and Christmas into one story.

"So, what's this I hear about you and the high school quarterback Brandon or something?" Summer asked.

I glanced at her, then looked down at the notebook under my nose. "Have you been talking to your sister lately? Apparently I took her man."

"So, did you?"

"Nope. Hasn't stopped him from gunning for me though." I flipped a page in my notebook.

"But he has asked you to the dance."

"He's asked me out period. I haven't decided to accept his offer though."

She went quiet but that didn't last long. "But wouldn't going out with the star football player give you a status boost?"

"Actually I am not interested in any popularity status thing. I just want to be able to survive." I replied.

"Survive? Survive what?"

"Just trying to survive high school without major incidents. Well I guess that's just a bunch of high hopes. I just got beaned with tennis ball, I say that would be an incident."

After that we didn't say much. Other kids around us were talking and laughing, Summer would be asked to join in a conversation but her attention was on me and our conversation that we were having.

"Aren't you mad at me?" She asked.

"About what?"

"About me being mean to you. I mean, I thought you would be mad because of all the crap I've been giving you."

"You want to know something, Summer?" I asked, not giving her a chance to respond. "I don't take anything you and Vanessa throw at me personally. I've been a foster kid for years, and getting put into homes where there are other kids it's a struggle to cope with. This family treats me like they actually care and some of the others weren't as nice as this is."

She looked down at her hands. "Was it really bad in the last place you were."

"I say getting locked in a closet for not making my bed properly would be called bad." Then I heard her take in a shaky breath, making me look back at her. "What's up?"

"I didn't give you a chance."

"Like I said, I don't take anything personally, Summer. I am not here to make your life miserable. I just want, I just want to be accepted. You have no idea what it feels like to be abandoned by your parents and forced to live with people that you don't know almost on a regular basis. I constantly felt like I was a burden when it wasn't my fault. That's where my trust issues come in."

"You don't trust us?"

"I didn't at first, no. But as I got to know your family, it was easier. I had Joe and Myritza on my side and that was enough for me. They were my age, it took me a bit longer to trust your parents."

I had hoped that my words would get to the younger girl. I really didn't mean for any of this to happen. But that is life, it is something that has to be done. Great, first Brandon and now Summer, I'm on a roll with inspiring people. If it actually worked, I wasn't so sure at that point.

No, Summer and I weren't best friends by the time the bus dropped us off at our bus stop, but it was a breath of fresh air that she was treating me a little better.

"Does it hurt? Your eye, does it hurt?" She asked as we walked up the door sidewalk to her house.

"Only when I think about it." I answered as we got to the front porch.

"Oh." She grabbed the doorknob to the front door and opened it. "Well, I hope you feel better."

Mr. Sika wasn't in his usual spot. He must have been out or something like that. But Ms. Patricia was there and she, much like Joe had, freaked out when seeing my eye.

"What happened?"

If I had to keep repeating that statement, it would become true.

"Just an accident at school. I kept a close eye on the tennis ball during PE. I'm fine, Ms. Patricia."

"No, no, it's not okay. Oh, come on. I'm going to put some ice on that to stop the swelling."

Needless to say I spent the next hour with Ms. Patricia fussing over me and my eye. Well there goes the trip to the store like I had wanted. Oh well, there would be other days.

* * *

**Just so you guys know, I am like three chapters ahead of the story, in the writing process. I had an idea of what sort of ending I had for this story but that got wiped out fast. I think I figured out what I want to do with it now. So thanks for all the thoughts and suggestions, but I would love to hear more of them as this story continues. Thanks everyone!**


	12. Chapter 12

**I decided to update again today, 12/13/13, because I will be out most of the day tomorrow doing shopping and stuff like that. I hope you enjoy this.**

* * *

It was Saturday and Ms. Patricia wanted to wait about a day so that my eye could get some of the swelling down before she took me shopping. But before that, I had to get Joe up.

Joe had football practice fairly early in the morning, and with me being an early riser, I was the one to get him up. It's not that I had to, I offered it.

"Joe, time to get up." I said, cracking the door open a little.

Joe was asleep, on his stomach. The blankets had fallen down around his waist, showing off his well toned back.

Placing my hand on his back, I shook him slightly. "Joe, Joe, wake up." I said.

His skin was soft, and warm. And like usual he was snoring. There was a free floating pillow near the side of his bed on the floor, which I grabbed up. I had an idea for what I was going to do.

The night before I had to sit through watching wrestling with Mr. Sika and Joe, only because they insisted on it. They said that Dwayne was on the show and I had actually liked it. I kind of like the acting aspect of the storytelling that the WWE had to offer. But the idea that I had with Joe was something a little more abusive.

"Wake up!" I yelled before attacking him with a pillow.

Joe had no way of protecting himself as I thudded away at his head. Regardless that my eye was still bruised, I was actually having a good time about it. Joe's arms flew up to his head, trying to block the soft pummeling that he was getting, before he twisted around into a sitting position and then came after me. He was a defensive tackler after all, so that's what he was good at. He tackled me to the floor, landing on top of me and pinning my hands over my head.

"What the hell is your problem?" He roared almost, nearly nose to nose.

I turned my head away from him. For wanting to joke around with Joe, apparently I did it wrong. I was scared, and I was never scared with Joe.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I half cried, trying to crawl my way out from under his weight. "I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to."

"Annie? What the hell?" I felt Joe get off of me. "Why would you do that?"

I sat up as fast as I could. "I was playing. I was playing." I had tears falling down my eyes. I had gotten up on my knees, hugging myself.

"Come here, Annie." Joe helped me to my feet. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling my head under his chin. "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry I scared you like that."

"I didn't mean to, Joe."

"I know, Annie, I know." He rubbed my back, looking up. "I shouldn't have acted like a douche."

Taking a few deep breaths, I stepped back from him. "I really am sorry, Joe. I just wanted to wake you up because you have practice."

"Hey, it's fine. I needed to get my lazy ass up anyway."

"Leati Joseph, what have I told you about that language?" Ms. Patricia appeared at the door. "And what is going on in here? Why are you crying, Annie?"

"I, I, I um…" I fidgeted with my fingers.

"I scared her. She tried to wake me up with a pillow to the head. I ended up tackling her to the floor. She thought I was going to hurt her." Did he have to be honest with his mother about everything?

"Is this true, Annie?"

"Yes, ma'am." I looked down at my feet. "I didn't mean to, I was trying to play around."

"Well considering that you two seem to be up, I need to tell you two that I can't go out cloths shopping today, Annie."

"Why, Ms. Patricia. Is something wrong?"

"Well, a friend is moving and I told her I would help pack her stuff up. So, I'm going to ask Joe to take you after his football practice today." Ms. Patricia said. "And, Joseph?"

"Yeah, mom?"

"Get some pants on. I don't want you walking around in just your underwear in front of your sisters."

Without even trying to say anything, I slipped out of the room and headed for the room I was sharing with Myritza.

"Hey, what's going on. I heard screaming." She said as she sat up when I entered the room.

"I tried to wake Joe up. It didn't go as I planned. I'm going with Joe to his practice and then he and I are going shopping."

"I wish I could come too but mom wrangled me into helping her friend move." She flopped back down on her bed. "Hey, can we do something for Sunday, if I don't have to help out with moving my mom's friend?"

"I don't know, maybe. I'll have to think about it." I said as I put my things into a backpack.

About twenty minutes later, Joe and I load up into his car. I hadn't said more than two words since that strange event in the morning. I was scared of Joe, because I thought that maybe I had done something wrong.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Annie." Joe said as he turned onto one of the main streets in Pensacola.

It seemed like there was always a Main Street in most towns and cities. Just a random thought as I sat with my head resting against the window watching the world go by.

"Tell you what, let me make it up to you." Joe said as he stopped at a light.

I lifted my head up off the window to look at him. "That's not necessary, Joe. You don't need to do that."

"Annie, I really didn't mean to scare you like that."

"I know. Maybe I'm being childish."

"No, I don't think so." He shook his head. "God knows, if I had at least considered that it was you, I would have just done something different."

I rested my head back on the window. I sighed and looked outside of the moving car. It was still dark out, so dark that the public trees lining the roads were still lit up with white Christmas tree lights. I always liked Christmas decorations, having had to make my own in previous years and lights always reminded me of fireflies. Red fireflies, blue fireflies, even green and yellow fireflies, all twinkling in the trees.

"Have you ever gone somewhere cold for Christmas? Where there was snow?" I asked suddenly.

"Actually, yeah. My older brother, Matt, he lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. We went there last Christmas, and it was too damn cold for me. I ended up getting a snow ball to the face, by my own brother."

I snickered at the image in my mind. Joe with snow sticking in his hair, in his facial hair that he was trying to grow in.

"I've only live in Miami. I guess, when I am an adult in two years I would want to go somewhere that has snow during Christmas. I might not stay there for long, though."

"Why, you like the sun and the surf?"

"Exactly."

* * *

"Where is Brandon?" I asked my PE teacher and the football coach as I was helping set up the field for Saturday practice. "I didn't see his special car in the parking lot when Joe and I arrived."

"I don't know. But I swear, our backup quarterback is getting better than he is. If he doesn't show up to any more of our practices after this I am going to have to cut him or bench him for the rest of the season." Mr. Olsen said. "I also appreciate you helping with set up, Annella."

"I actually kind of like this. As long as I can do my homework during the practice, I'm fine with it."

Since being friends with Joe, Kevin, Mike and Sam, I had really gotten to know some of other football players and they were mainly great guys. Also because that I was in Brandon's English class, so were a few of the other players, on the senior side.

"Hey, Annie." Spencer 'Sketch' Carlson, one of the seniors walked up with his helmet in hand. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Sketch, what is it?" I asked the offensive tackler.

"Well," he ran his hand through is slightly curly brown hair. "I was wondering if you would like to go to the Winter Dance with me."

My mouth went dry. I hadn't expected someone else to ask me out.

"I, uh, well I'm already going with someone." I answered. "But, you know, I heard about one of the cheerleaders needing a date. Sandy mentioned that Candice Williams doesn't have a date. And she is the co-captain of the cheerleaders, if not Candice, Vanessa is still looking for someone."

"Dude, that's Joe's sister." Sketch actually stepped back from me in shock.

"So? She needs an escort and you obviously are a good guy. If it had been someone like Brandon, then Joe probably would have issues. But since I'm going with Brandon, Vanessa needs a good guy to take care of her."

Looking back over at Joe, who was getting into a huddle with the rest of the team, Sketch sighed. "I'll have to think about it. But thanks for the heads up. I have to get out there. Talk to you later."

"Sure hope so." I smiled at him.

Two hours, that's how long I sat during a football practice on this Saturday. It was two hours of writing a new story for my class and the newspaper, actually getting something written down that felt right and true. The story had hit a snag for me, the three Christmas spirits and Judah just seemed so strange to me. I had been in a slump with the story, it was growing weary with all the time that I had put into it. I had never really wrote fantasy, but what I came up with this day was something better.

My Creative Writing class was interesting because then I had a chance to really think about how to write better. We talked about changing the plot halfway during the creative process and then an idea came into my mind. Write what you know, and write what you don't know.

* * *

_His name was Perry, Perry Simpson. He had been a foster kid for the last three years. He was six when he got sent to the Miser family._

_The house was huge, dark and scary. At least that was what he thought. But there was something in the window, a weird candle holder with eight prongs on it. All the other houses seemed to be lit up with all the Christmas lights. Why didn't this house have Christmas lights, he thought as he approached the front door with his social worker, Mr. Erikson. If he could be anywhere else in the world, it wouldn't be standing in front of a big house in Cincinnati._

"_Don't worry, Perry." Mr. Erikson ruffled his light brown wavy hair. "These are nice people. I personally checked them out before I brought you here. Everyone says such good things about these nice people." He promised the boy._

* * *

"Hey, Annie, practice is over. I'm going to head in and get a quick shower before we go." Joe said, jogging up to the bleachers.

"Okay. I'm going to help Mr. Olsen clear up the practice stuff." I said shoving my notebook back into my backpack with my textbooks and zipped it shut.

This had become something of a normal thing for me. Helping out when I could with the set up and tear down. I mean aside from taking the bus home, I would set up when I could for the football team but I wouldn't stick around because I had to take the bus home.

"I haven't seen you stick around, lately, Annella." Mr. Olsen said as I handed him the practice cones. "Is there something going on?"

I looked around, seeing if there were students around but when I saw that there weren't I sighed. "Can you keep something secret? You can't tell any of the other students."

"Sure, what is it. I promise."

"Well, everyone seems to know that I'm a foster kid, it's not something I try to hide. But I am living with Joe Anoa'i temporarily. His two younger sisters don't really care that I'm in the house. Myritza and I are like best friends but Vanessa and Summer don't really care that I'm there."

"So why aren't you sticking around after practice?"

"I don't want to deal with Vanessa and her cold treatment of me. I mean my bus home is in the second wave of busses so I can sometimes quickly help set up like I have these last couple of days. But I'm sorry if I haven't been packing away afterward."

"You don't need to apologize, Annella. I understand. But I would like to see you around more often. If you haven't noticed, since you've been around the guys seem sort of, well they seem different." He said taking the cones from me. "You've actually sped up practice time. When you set up the guys don't have to do it. You've sort of become a fixture within the team."

"I have? I only set up and take down, then I sit on my backside and do homework."

"Trust me, I know my team and you seem to be in the middle of it all. Don't you have lunch with them after PE?"

"Uh, yeah, sort of. Brandon and I usually sit together. But, well I might as well go back to my friends, you know. Since he's being irresponsible. The big cheese is starting to smell funny, so to say."

"I can't talk bad about students, but you may be right about him being irresponsible. I'm going to have to figure out a way to fix this with him. Don't worry."

"I'm not worried. He's screwing up his life on his own." I said as I picked up the net bag of practice footballs.

I met up with Joe back at his car. He had freshly washed hair, that much I could tell. He smiled at me as he put his gear into the trunk of the car and then we both headed off to the next part of our day.

"Ready to go?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, lets get out of here." I answered plopping down into the passenger seat of the car.

* * *

**Thanks for reading everyone!**


	13. Chapter 13

"I hate cloths shopping." I said, looking through racks of cloths at a store that Ms. Patricia said we could go to.

She had given me fifty dollars to work with and I wanted to at least look presentable at school. I just wasn't sure if I could find anything.

The store was okay, but because my cloths were usually hand me downs of boy cloths, it was hard to tell what my style was as a chick. There was so many different styles it was all too confusing for me to wrap my head around.

"You and me both. It seems like I'm usually the one that has to take my sister's shopping when mom has other things to do." Joe said as he flipped through a rack of tops near me.

I smiled as I looked at a pair of jeans that looked good. Black, I thought I always looked good in black. "I don't understand why girls try to complain about their weight. My issue is that I have no style besides the one I'm wearing." I indicated to my attire with my free hand.

This store was fairly popular, especially to mothers shopping for their daughters. Joe was probably the only male in the store. I couldn't see a man standing around trying to shop for a teenager. And like other stores around at this time of year, there were Christmas and holiday decorations going on in the store. Mostly for eye catching.

"I'm glad we don't do Black Friday in my house." Joe said, skimming through some of the shirts on a nearby rack. "I like this one. You said you like red."

I turned to look at his selection. Actually it was nice. It was a red shirt with some shiny threading around the slight v neck color and the short cuffs on the sleeves. It had a buckled belt around the middle, accentuating the bust. I had to remember what the dress code was on this type of shirt. I was a stickler for being good in school, so wearing proper clothing was a must.

"I love it, Joe. Um, see if you can find a camisole or a thin strap tank top to go under it. White, or black might look good with it." I said as I looked up at him.

Something caught my attention. Actually it was a someone. A woman, maybe in her fifties, was watching me. More precisely was watching my face, my eye. She looked away when she saw me looking at her.

Joe followed where I was looking. "What?" He asked.

When the woman saw that Joe was also looking, she tried to appear to be scanning through the cloths that she was in front of. Joe didn't notice her, but I sure did.

"People probably think you punched me." I stated, draping the shirt over my arm. "But I'm not going to let it bother me. Come on, you're holding my wallet while I try on this shirt and these pants."

"What, no purse?" He joked with me.

"The best you'll get would be a satchel bag, which I sort of want. But since I only have a backpack that I left in your car and a wallet, you're holding my wallet." I said, walking back towards the fitting rooms.

The black jeans and the red top was a hit for Joe. His face sort of lit up when I walked out of the fitting room in just my bare feet. Well, reading people's faces was something that as a writer I was supposed to know and this one was an appreciative look.

"So, do I look okay?" I asked, turning sideways to look at my figure in the mirror.

Some would think that I was perfect, tiny in every way. Five nothing, I was maybe one hundred and ten pounds, I just seemed to never gain weight. The shirt accentuated my bust line, making it look like I actually have something worth to look at. The jeans gave the illusion that I actually had a butt on me.

"You look good, Annie." He said, stepping into view. "This looks great on you." He reached out and tugged on the shirt a little.

"Thanks, I'm going to get it. I just really hope to find an undershirt for it. I think it's too revealing." I answered.

After getting back into my regular street cloths, I had given Joe the top and the pants while I went to go look for some underwear, which was in the back corner of the store. He had insisted on looking for a few more items that he thought might look good for me and at this point I didn't care. Prices were an issue, I was such a penny pincher that it was a wonder I even found something.

As I was skimming through bras and panties packs, I noticed the older woman from earlier. Her peppery gray hair stood out from her creamy colored cloths. With Joe as tall as he was, I could easily see him across the store looking through racks of cloths when I was slightly cornered in the back by this woman, a person I didn't know.

"Do you need me to call someone for you, dear?" She asked, touching my arm slightly.

"I'm sorry?" I asked, looking at her.

"Do you want me to call someone, a relative or someone you trust." She then grabbed my elbow, lowering her voice. "We can call the police if your boyfriend is hurting you."

As odd as that may sound, it was sort of nice. But it was still odd.

"He's not my boyfriend." I told her.

"But honey, you don't have to live in fear anymore. I have a cell phone, you can call the cops and report him." She urged.

"Ma'am," I pulled my arm from her. "I'm a sixteen year old foster kid living with that guy's family. This is a PE accident." I motioned to my face. "Next time, don't assume something, Ma'am. If you can't tell fear from friendship, don't assume the worst."

Then I turned and walked back towards Joe. He was still looking through some of the cloths, but I would rather get out of there. Ever since I noticed that woman watching, I had seen other people watching as well. I would never allow for Joe to be seen as an abuser, I think I knew him better than that.

"I found some cloths you might like." Joe said proudly, showing me some of the pants and a few nice tops that actually looked good from what I had seen.

"Can we just get the ones that I chose earlier. I don't really want to stand around here much longer."

"Why?"

"Because a woman just approached me, thinking you're my boyfriend and that you're abusing me."

"What?" He glanced up at the other motherly women who were watching us like hawks. "Oh, hell. I didn't think, well I didn't really think this would happen."

"What do you expect. I've got a fist size bruise over my eye, Joe. How do black eyes usually happen. With fists." I shook my head. "I just want to get out of here."

"Just try on the cloths first. You really wanted to get some new cloths, Annie. Just quickly try on the cloths, pick the ones you like the most and we'll get out of here. Please."

I sighed, looking at the cloths in his arms. "Fine, but only because you asked so nicely."

I grabbed the small stack of cloths and headed back to the fitting rooms.

* * *

You couldn't get us out of that store fast enough. With bags in tow, the fifty dollars used up easily after three pairs of cloths, Joe and I left in one big hurry.

"That was such a strange thing." I said as we got into Joe's car.

"Yeah, I guess it was." Joe answered as he started to pull out of the parking spot.

It was already noon, most of the day had gone by for me. We had nothing else to do, and since the money for my cloths was used up we had nothing to do. That is until Joe suggested we could go to the beach.

"I think you could use some relaxation time." He said as we headed back towards his home.

We totally bypassed his house, heading instead to one of those inlet parking lots near Joe's home. It seemed like that's all Joe and I seemed to do. Beach time.

Parking the car and when we got to the beach, Joe and I took off our shoes and then headed down to the water's edge. With this being a Saturday the beach was actually pretty busy. This stretch of beach was fairly crowded, so we headed towards and area that didn't really have any people. My backpack was on my back, a fact that I didn't leave it anywhere that wasn't safe. It was safer with me, that's for sure.

"Are you still going to the dance?" Joe asked.

"I think so. I can't say that I will for long though. In the back of my mind I still have a feeling that I will be placed in a new home before Christmas, back in Miami."

"Don't think like that, Annie."

"Can I tell you something, Joe?" I asked.

"Sure what is it?"

"If I wasn't living with you, if I wasn't a foster kid, and we were friends, could you ever see yourself dating me?" I asked. "Never mind, forget I asked."

He lightly caught my arm. "Wait, where is this coming from?"

"I wish I knew. I wish I really knew. I see Brandon and I see you, and the more I realize how much of an ass Brandon is I turn to you more and more. I can't say that I'm in love with you, I know I can't say that, but I feel something, something that I've never felt before in my life. Affection, sure, maybe, but I don't know what to call it."

"A crush?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"Annie, I think you've been getting mixed signals." Joe stepped back from me. "I don't think of you like that."

"Like I said, it's not something I've ever experienced before. So just forget about it." I started walking again, this time back towards the parking lot. "Let's just go back to the house."

"Annie." He tried to say as he jogged up to me.

"I said drop it, Joe." I said. "It's obvious that I put my foot in my mouth."

Finally he got a good grip on me. "What's really wrong, Annie? Just tell me."

"How can I tell you if I don't know what it is myself?" I looked up at him. "I don't know, I just don't know anymore. One moment I believe that I am fine but then something happens and it makes me believe that something is wrong with me."

"You can't fix people, Annie. You can only help them the best you can, but you can't fix them. I don't know why you think you can fix Brandon, he's been like this since he started high school, when his dad because the mayor and shit like that."

"Then why do I feel the way I do about you?"

"Probably because I actually give a damn about you. I know my family does, well most of them at least. But at first I was just being nice with you because you were new. And then you became a sister, like a sister to me."

Facts and thoughts swam in my head. I was confused. I was tired. I was just tired of it all.

"Can you take me back to the house?"

"Come on, I'll take us home." He guided back down the beach towards where the public parking was.

By the time we got back to the house, it was just Joe and me there. Mr. Sika had gone out somewhere, I think he was at his job. I think Summer and Vanessa had gone off to help Ms. Patricia's friend pack up to move. So, yeah, I was just Joe and me at the house. Joe and I hadn't said much of anything to each other, I went up to my room and closed the door behind me. Then I turned to my notebook of Perry's Christmas Wish.

Diving into writing was my only way of getting out of the life that I had to deal with. Notes on what I was doing lay out before me as I opened the laptop. Starting a new document, I wrote what I had re-wrote what had written about Perry during the football practice. And from there, I spent an hour just writing. Diving into the story, I didn't have to worry about anything else around me. I didn't have to worry about my life, I didn't have to worry about Brandon and the mixed signals that I had been getting from him. Or the mixed emotions that I have been getting with Joe. I just created my own little world and dove right into it.

* * *

_An older woman answered the door in a pink dress with an apron. She had big frizzy hair with a piece of cloth tied into it. Perry instantly stepped behind Mr. Erikson's legs as the two adults greeted each other._

"_Mary, so nice to see you again." Mr. Erikson said, holding his hand out to the woman._

"_Mr. Erikson, you too. And is this the boy that will be staying with us?" She asked looked down at Perry. _

"_Yes, this is Perry. Perry this is Mary Miser, your foster mother."_

"_Hi."_

"_Well come on out, boy. I want to look at you." She said, holding her hand out to him._

_He didn't want to but he had to. The six year old boy stepped out and shook her hand like he had been taught to do for the home owners, the foster parents._

* * *

"Hey, Annie…" I looked up from my laptop when I heard Myritza at the door.

"Yeah?"

"Brandon's here. He wants to see you."

Brandon wants to what? I shook my head and then I saved my document before I stood up. "He's outside right now? And when did you get back?"

"Just a few minutes ago. I didn't want to interrupt you because you were typing up a storm on the laptop." She said as she followed me down the stairs. "Vanessa thought he was here to see her."

"Yeah, well if he had something to say to me he better tell me why he missed practice today. This is a team sport, it's not a me sport." I mumbled as I got to the bottom of the stairs.

Vanessa glared at me when I reached the door. She was sitting on the couch that had a full view of the front door. Apparently she didn't get the memo, but that wasn't my problem anymore.

I opened the door and there was Brandon, standing up against the pole that held up the roof to the front porch. He looked like he could just walk out on a catwalk in top of the line cloths. And for some reason I hated that.

At that moment, I sort of hated Brandon.

* * *

**There, I hope you liked this update. **


	14. Chapter 14

"I'm glad your eye is doing better, Annie." Brandon said when he saw me step outside the house.

Well it now or never, in my opinion. This is where I would find out if everything was worth the heartache I had been through with him.

"You didn't go to practice today, Brandon." I stated, leaning up against the house, keeping a fair distance between Brandon and me.

I looked him over. Perfect hair, perfect cloths, perfect everything and he prided himself in having more than me. More than anyone else I'm sure. I felt betrayed. But why? He was an ass, it wasn't my fault as Joe would have said. It wasn't my fault that Brandon dropped the ball. It wasn't my fault he was not the person I hoped he would be.

"Is that all I get, hon?" He asked.

"I'm not your hon, Brandon." I stated cooly.

"Why is it such a bad thing that I missed one practice? Why would you care?"

"I don't know, because this is a team sport. It's not a me sport, it's a we sport, a team sport and you're just prancing around like you're a male lion, you're the top dog."

"That's because I am. I am better than anyone else. I am the main player on the team."

I didn't say anything for a moment. I had a thought. "So, I'm not good enough for you." I said. "I'm just a conquest that you can have."

"Yeah." He said proudly before stumbling slightly when it registered what I had said. "Wait, what?"

"You think you can sleep with the new girl. The girl that obviously has some skill with her, some notoriety because I have been published with the Miami Sun. I actually am good at something, I'm popular. But there is also something more. I've never dated. Sleep with me, you get to parade that fact around to the rest of the school. Tell you what, I have something for you."

When I opened the door, it knocked into Vanessa. She stepped back from me as I looked at her, then I looked back at Brandon.

"Brandon Kellett, meet Vanessa Anoa'i. Vanessa, this is Brandon. You two are made for each other. Why don't you two go for a romantic walk on the beach and plan for your matching outfits at the Winter Solstice Dance." I stepped around Vanessa and stomped towards the stairs.

"Does that mean you're not going to the dance with me?" Brandon called into the house.

"What do you think, Weasley!" I yelled running up the stairs.

Payback was a bitch. But hey, I gave Vanessa her wish. I gave her Brandon.

There was a knock on the door and then Ms. Patricia opened the door. "Annie, can I talk to you about your behavior?"

I looked up, from having my face buried in my knees. Regardless that my eye still hurt, I just had it with everything. "What did I do wrong this time?" I asked as she sat down on the end of the bed.

"I just want to know what's wrong." She touched my foot. "What happened outside?"

"Wishful thinking, mostly. I thought I could enlighten someone about how much of a scrooge he was and he just throws it in my face."

"It's more than that."

Yeah, it was more than that. "Vanessa doesn't like me."

"I kind of gathered that, sweetie, but…"

"Brandon wanted to take me to the dance, and she got mad." I wiped my eyes with my knuckle. "She apparently has had a thing for him for I don't know how long. And all he wanted was to be called the one that got the published teenager for a girlfriend. I'm almost sixteen, I've got things going through my head and I don't know how to deal with them."

"What sort of things?" She asked.

"I think I have a crush on your son." I mumbled, looking away from her. "I feel so stupid. I'm in a home that, well for the most part wants me to be happy, that wants me to be safe I guess." She nodded at what I was saying. "You guys want me to feel welcome but I've got issues with Vanessa, until recently Summer seemed to be mad at me for whatever reason and all I can think is that I would like to find a guy like Joe to date. And all I can do is make excuses for Vanessa as to why she is the way she is." And cue more tears. "I'm so confused."

"Teenage hormones, emotional trauma and the feeling of being surrounded by a family is going to give you conflicting emotions. Maybe you can think of something else, someone else?"

"Sketch." I mumbled, wiping away my tears.

"Who?"

"Sketch. He's a guy on Joe's football team. He asked me out to the dance but I turned him down because I thought I was going with Brandon at the time."

"Maybe you can."

"I told him about Vanessa and another girl needed a date to the Dance."

She smiled. "Honey, I think you need some time to yourself."

"Yeah, I kind of figured. What for?"

"So you can get your thoughts straight." She brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. I looked at her. "Maybe it would be beneficial for you. You by yourself, so that you can get out and not be surrounded by the noise of this household. Do you still have some money left over from that fifty I gave you?"

"I think about five dollars, why?"

"Well there is a strip mall. Why don't you take that money and just go spend it on yourself. Make yourself feel good. I'll give you bus fare and you can go out by yourself. Do what you want with yourself. I'll give you my cell phone so that you can call home."

I looked down at my hands and really thought. Just for me, just for me to do what I wanted? I mean five bucks wasn't much but to a foster kid it was something that I could get several things that I would need.

"Okay." I answered.

"Okay?" She had to ask me, seeing if I was really okay with what she had said to me.

"Yes, I'm okay with going out on my own. I'll get ready to go and figure out when the next city bus is from here."

Though where the Anoa'i family lived, it was a mostly residential area but I knew where Ms. Patricia was talking about. There was a strip mall type place where there were ninety nine cent stores and dollar stores, thrift stores and I think there was a toy store in there. I didn't think I would find something there but maybe I would.

I had my skateboard shoes on but this time I wanted to feel special about myself. I wanted to feel better about myself. So I took that red shirt and those black jeans and I pulled my usually straight free flowing hair back into a ponytail. I had my tattered wallet, I had the extra cash, which I could was actually seven dollars instead of five and then I headed downstairs.

"Here is what you need for a one way trip to the strip mall and what you will need to come back." She handed me a fist full of coins.

I put one one-way fair in my right pocket and the other in my left pocket so that I would remember where the money was. I usually did this if I took public transport.

"Where are you going?" Myritza asked, walking up.

"I'm going out for a little while." I answered as I took the cell phone that Ms. Patricia was handing me.

Pushing down her pink top, the younger teen smiled. "Cool, can I go?"

"No, Myritza. Annie needs to go out alone." Her mother answered. "Now, Annie, you have your bus fair, you have my cell phone, is there anything else you need before you go?"

I looked down at myself. This felt different, walking around in different cloths than my usual baggy stuff. "I need confidence but sure, I think I have everything."

Joe stopped as he walked in front the kitchen. He had a sandwich in one hand and a glass of something else in the other. "Whoa, Annie. You're looking good."

See what I mean by conflicting emotions and thoughts? One moment he wants to be a brother to me and then the next it sounded like he was flirting with me.

"Thanks." I half mumbled as I turned back to Ms. Patricia. "I'll be back later. I'll check in when I get there and when I get on the bus back here."

"You do that."

As a goodie two shoes, I was planning on doing what I was told.

* * *

The bus stop was a few streets over from where the Anoa'i family lived. But it was on a main road and it was a straight shot to the strip mall. I stood at the bus stop, my head whirling with thoughts and just waiting. I had checked online when the next bus was to come and I had about a ten minute wait. Ten minutes, wow think about that. I could think about a thousand things and then some in ten minutes.

As the bus pulled up, I dug my fair out of one pocket and then as I got on I paid my way. I knew the area where the strip mall was along this route. So I sat down in another ten minute ride to the strip mall.

When I got to the strip mall it was about three in the afternoon. Most stores closed at six but on Friday and Saturday these stores closed. I was happy for this, I could spend a few hours to myself and just relax. But what store did I want to go to first?

Ms. Patricia said I had to spend the money on myself, but that isn't how I worked. I always found a way to do for others besides myself. I had ideas for Christmas gifts for people, well for the ones that I actually knew.

"Annie?" I heard someone say.

I looked up and then around to find walking up behind me was Sketch. I hadn't seen him since football practice that day. He was wearing street cloths, jeans and a polo looking shirt.

"Hi, Sketch. What's going on?" I asked, turning towards him.

"Nothing much, I'm taking some of my extra money and buying gifts for foster kids. You sort of inspired me to do that. What are you doing here?"

"I'm enjoying myself. Away from Brandon, away from so much going on in my head. I have some money that was left over from cloths shopping, I was told to go spend it on me."

"Yeah, how much?"

I looked down slightly. "Just seven bucks."

"Hey, could you help me?" Sketch asked, running a hand through his hair, ruffling it slightly. "I need help with buying for kids I don't know. You see I was given this list of four kids in foster care and their ages and what they sort of like but I don't really have a clue as to what to buy them. I don't have any younger brothers or sisters, so I don't really know what I'm doing."

"Sure, can I see the list?" I asked, holding my hand out.

He handed me the piece of paper and I looked at it. Cars, dolls, stuffed animals and stuff like that. Things that wouldn't be too costly for any normal people.

"Lets go see what this toy store has. Maybe we can figure it out there." I suggested, pointing to the strip mall toy store that was there. "I see someone likes dinosaurs on the list. Toy stores usually have lots of dinosaurs."

"I used to love dinosaurs when I was younger. My mom said that I went bananas over them." Sketch laughed at the memory apparently. "What did you like?"

"I liked stuffed animals, because I didn't have much in the way of friends growing up. Stuffed animals were my friends. When I started getting into writing all I wanted was notebooks and mechanical pencils and stuff like that. I got a few books, used books on how to write novels. That's my goal some day."

"To write a book?"

"A novel, yes but I haven't found that nitch yet. The genre and whatever. I write mainly short stories but I haven't really dipped my foot into writing chapter stories yet."

Sketch opened the door for me. "Well, as they always say. You can do it as long as you put your heart into it."

"Thanks." I said as I stepped in. "I really mean it, Sketch."

The store was dressed commercially for Christmas. Small fake trees with fake wrapped gifts around the bottom were up on top of shelves and there were trains choo-chooing around some displays. There were lights and sounds going off in all the little areas. Children with their parents or guardians were hanging around the store as if it was a normal thing to do on a Saturday. It was a rather nice sight.

"So, dinosaurs we chose right?" Sketch asked looking down at me.

"Right. I think they are over in that direction, next to the cars." I pointed to the right side of the store.

The store was almost divided up into two parts. Boys and girls, boys to the right as you enter and girls to the left as you entered and what could be called unisex was in the middle. I think stuff like playdough and stuff like art supplies and things of that nature were strewn around in the middle but that was just over guessing the situation.

"I have a question for you, Sketch. Why do they call you Sketch?" I asked as he was going through different types of dinosaurs.

"I like to draw, and sketch. It's my pass time, much like writing is yours." He answered. "I mean, I'm not just a big football player, I actually have something that I like to do outside of it. That just happens to be drawing."

"Do you paint?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's called pastel painting."

"Oh, I like that. It almost abstract without being abstract. I like the different textures that pastels and charcoal art gives off." I said as I picked up a triceratops figurine. "How old is this kid that likes dinosaurs?" I asked.

"Six, why?"

I motioned to some of the other things. "Well this one is a 3D puzzle, it's for kids five and up." I tapped a puzzle box. "Or do you think he would prefer a collection of them?" I asked motioning to a box set of dinosaur figurines. "If it were me I would go with the box set of figurines."

"Then that's what we'll get." Sketch said plucking the box off the shelf. "That's one down. Then there are three more to go."

As we were looking at stuffed animals for a little girl, I finally decided that maybe Sketch had good intentions for asking me out. Maybe I should just talk to him about what was going on with me and the quarterback.

"I'm sorry about earlier, turning you down about going to the dance." I said fiddling with a toy dog.

"It's no problem. I'll just as someone else. I don't know who…"

"Brandon came by the house where I'm staying and I found out his true intentions about me." I said honestly as I put the stuffed dog back. "He seemed like he just wanted to have the glory of saying he was going out with me, the published foster kid, you know. So I dropped him, gave him to Vanessa like she wanted and walked away from it."

"Are you hinting you would like to go with me to the dance?" he asked.

"Sure, if you still want to go with a mess up like me."

"You're not a mess up, you're not a burden, you're a human. I can't guess all the crap that you've gone through in your life, and I can't see myself not having the family that I have right now. But making mistakes is what humans are known for. That's just what we are. We're humans. We're not perfect." He smiled at me. "But yes, I would like to go to the dance with you."

At that moment I was truly happy. And I was happy about myself.

* * *

**Well, there you go. I hope I did good this time. What do you think?**


	15. Chapter 15

I called Ms. Patricia and let her know that Sketch was bringing me back to the house. He refused to let me leave for home by bus. And with it edging onto dark, Ms. Patricia thought that it was a good idea as well.

"You're living with Joe?" Sketch asked.

"Yeah, I didn't want to tell anyone about it because it's sort of a sore subject for the people that are involved." I answered as I got out of his jeep.

"Vanessa?" He asked.

"Yep."

Joe was in the front room when I walked in. Sketch and I were talking about football, of all topics. "So wait, you knocked him out of his shoes? Is that even possible?" i asked as I turned to look at Sketch while I held the door open for him.

There was a bag of some stuff that he had insisted on taking for me. It wasn't even heavy, I could have carried the bag but on my own. But he really wanted to carry the bag for me.

"Yeah, it was kind of funny. Hey man," Sketch waved at Joe.

"Thanks for carrying the bag for me but I'm going to take this up to my room. I'll be right back. Hi, Joe." I said, moving around him to go to the stairs.

Myritza was in the room when I walked in. She sat up on the bed, having put down her own English reading book when I placed the plastic bags on the bed.

"So, was that Sketch you showed up with?" She asked as I turned to leave.

"Yeah. And we agreed that we would go to the Dance together. After all the heartache with Brandon, I don't want to be burden with trying to fix something or someone that doesn't want to be fixed. I want to see him off. Sketch is waiting downstairs."

I heard her laughing even after I left the room.

Ms. Patricia was talking to Joe and Sketch, calling Sketch Spencer because that was his name after all. I only really knew him as Sketch so it was sort of odd to hear him be called by his real name.

"How is your mother doing, Spencer." Ms. Patricia asked as I stepped off the last step of the stairs.

"She's getting better. The chemo is finally taking effect. They think it will reduce the size of the tumor so that she can get the surgery. But our insurance is being finicky about all of it."

His mom had a tumor? I didn't know that. Not that I really hung out with Sketch before so he wouldn't have mentioned this to me. He barely knew me so why would he trust me?

"Hey, you're back." Sketch said when seeing me.

"Uh, yeah. I had to go put my writing stuff up. Um, thanks for bringing me back."

I looked at Sketch, who smiled at me. "Not a problem, Annie. I hope to see you on Monday. I want to see you back at the football table during lunch."

"I'll be there." I promised him.

After saying goodbye to Ms. Patricia and Joe, Sketch left. That also left me standing in the middle of the front room with various sets of eyes looking at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing, Annie. You look happy now." Ms. Patricia said patting my arm. "Now go get cleaned up for dinner. No beef, don't worry."

"Thanks, Ms. Patricia." I answered and then headed up the stairs yet again.

Vanessa was coming out of the bathroom that we kids had to share as I was getting to it.

"Hi." I said, stepping out of her way so that she could get by.

"Hi." She replied, at least this wasn't in contempt for me. I was about ready to close the door when she spoke up. "Why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You know what? Why did you treat Brandon like that?"

"Because he was a jerk and I couldn't take it anymore. He kept reminding me of so little I had and how much better off he was. Then the only reason why he wanted to be with me was because of my own popularity. I had enough with him, especially since Sketch was someone I could actually kind of see myself with."

"You and Sketch? Really?" She then looked me over. "Sure I guess I could see it. He was never my type though. Too nice if you think about it."

Nice was a good quality, being a stuck up jerk wasn't on my list of things.

"So, I'm guessing you and Brandon are going to the dance together." I said as I moved to the doorway of the bathroom.

"After what you did, no." She stated. Then Vanessa turned and left me.

Well I couldn't please everyone.

"Is she giving you issues again?" Myritza asked as I came back into the room. "I heard everything going on at the bathroom door from here. So, what are you going to do?"

"I've already done it. I gave Vanessa Brandon. I gave her what she wanted. She wanted the guy, I gave him to her. What she does with that, it's her business. Come on, dinner is ready."

Dinner in the Anoa'i I quickly found out was a family ordeal. Everyone had to eat at the kitchen table and I had to deal with it. No school work at the table, no electronic devices like cell phones or any of that. We had to eat like a family, we had to talk like a family.

"This is a good meal, hon." Mr. Sika said as we all sat down around the table. "This is really, really good."

"Thanks, Hon." Ms. Patricia smiled at her husband.

Chicken, grill chicken. A southern meal, which was popular here in Pensacola because it was so close to the Alabama border, so southern things were popular around here. This meal was no different. It was something that I liked, it had things in it that was so nice and juicy, even the greens.

"So, what are you doing as a dress for the Dance that you're going to?" Summer asked, as she was cutting her chicken.

Vanessa spoke up. "I want a gorgeous dress, one that will make me the Winter Queen, again."

"I was kind of talking to Annie, Vanessa." Summer said before looking at me. "So, what are you going to wear?"

"I'm not sure. I don't think I would look good in white. It's too much of a wedding color." I answered. "Maybe something blue. I'm not really sure myself."

"I think maybe we should make a day long deal out of it, just us girls." Ms. Patricia said. "And say a hundred dollar limit for each."

"That sounds like a good idea."

"A hundred dollars, what's that going to get me?" Vanessa whined.

I was not complaining, I was not going to complain. This wasn't a competition, not in my opinion. I stared at my collard greens and kept eating.

"You okay, Annie?" Joe asked.

"Huh?" I looked at him. "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm good."

"You can tell us anything, Annie." Ms. Patricia said. "Is something really wrong?"

I didn't want this. Every time I was asked my opinion, or anything, I would get a glare from Vanessa. She just really hated me.

"I know I can tell you guys anything. I'm just thinking about the dance. I don't know what it is, what happens there."

"Oh, is that all? Well, since I was the Winter Queen last year," Vanessa boasted yet again. "It's based off of popularity. To be named the Queen you have to be popular, nice and oh yeah, popular." "Vanessa." Mr. Sika said, looking at his daughter.

"Actually, Dad, that's what it is. It's a popularity contest." Myritza said then looked at me. "You have to have a nice demeanor, you have to help people."

"Who gets nominated?" I asked. "How do you nominate someone?"

"Well, it's mainly anonymous, if I'm right." Joe said.

"Yeah," Myritza piped up. "Starting this week, people put in names of who they want to be nominated as queen and king. Who is nominated will be put up onto posters and then on the night of the dance you can vote for who should be king and queen."

"Sounds interesting." I responded, stabbing at my chicken.

I knew I didn't have a chance on being the Winter Queen. That's not what I was sad about though. Maybe it had to do the with the fact that I wasn't good enough for it. But maybe I was. I just had to believe.

* * *

I couldn't sleep, which is usually uncommon for me. Always as an early riser, I did most of my better writing first thing in the morning. That is if there wasn't any school that I had to go to. At five in the morning, while staring blankly at the ceiling, listening to Myritza breathing heavily. I got up, grabbed my laptop and headed down to the front room so I wouldn't be waking her or anyone else.

The story of Perry started to come together, ideas were in my head and the fact that I had no one else to bother me as I was sitting on the couch. I didn't hear Joe walk down the stairs.

* * *

_Perry was scared, that much he was sure. Mrs. Miser looked down at him, looking much like the principle from a cartoon show he had seen once. He held the strange candle stick behind his back and…_

* * *

"What are you doing up?" Joe asked, causing me to jump so high that my laptop danced precariously on my knees.

"Joe, you scared me." I gasped as I grabbed my laptop. "What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep. What are you doing up?" he asked as he came to sit down next to me.

"I couldn't sleep either. I figured I would get some homework done. I've had to rewrite this story that I've got going on for my Creative Writing and the newspaper assignment."

Joe sat down on the end of the couch, leaning his head against the back of the couch. "Is that what you're going to do for the rest of the day, do homework?"

"I don't want to get behind in my school work, Joe. I guess I just want to do good enough so that I can go to college."

The other teen nodded. "Georgia Tech has made offers to me this year."

"You're a junior, and you're good. I've seen you work really hard during practices. You can do it, I'm sure." I said as I saved my document and then started to shut down but stopped. "Hey, uh, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Have you ever done an early morning beach visit?" I asked.

"Some times, if I'm not having a good day. Why?"

I started to shut down my laptop. "I want to go to the beach right now. Let me go put my laptop up and get a jacket. I kind of just want to go for a walk."

"Sure, I'll go get dressed and head on out with you."

I put my laptop up, grabbed a sweatshirt and I met up with Joe downstairs at the back door. Joe had his Union High hoodie on and a pair of dark jeans that fit him nicely. Together we went out back and down to the beach, as quiet as could be.

Like usual I had a notebook with me, my pen and I proceeded to then take off my shoes so that I could go step into the water. It seemed like this was mandatory, it was something that Joe and I could share together and appreciate together. But on this morning it was cooler, there was a breeze coming off of the ocean waves. Tranquility eased through my body as I watched the rising sun. It was just red at first, where the sky met the sea. I knew soon it would be rising and soon I would have to go back to life in the Anoa'i family.

"So, you're through with Brandon Kellett aren't you?" Joe asked, his voice breaking into the calm of my mind.

"As much as I wish he was as much of a good person as he was good looking, yeah I am. I'm through with him, moving on to bigger and better things as they would say."

"Good, Sketch is a great guy."

"Because of me, he was buying Christmas gifts for foster kids. I was helping him." I smiled at that memory. "It's sort of sad that I haven't really noticed him before though."

"What do you mean?"

"He's in my English class and I had not realized it. I think he thought that he didn't have a chance to get to know me because that Weasley jock was all over me. Figuratively speaking."

A larger wave surged forward, splashing us up to our knees. It didn't bother me, not really. With shoes in hand, and my notebook, I decided to step back from the deeper water and then I found a place where I would be more comfortable. It was like an entire tree had either washed up on shore, lodging it into the higher sand bank. That's where I went, Joe followed. We plopped down on the sand, resting our backs to the tree and watched the sun together.

"There was one time that I came out here, I had a nasty fight with my brother Matt." Joe said suddenly. "We got into some sort of feud of our own. It was strange, I don't even really remember it but it was something stupid. I decided to walk out here and just mellow out."

"Amazing how the ocean does that to a person. Just walking out here and letting the water and the breeze take your issues away." I added, propping my notebook up on my lap.

Ever since I had admitted my feelings towards Joe, he seemed to be trying to be a friend to me. And maybe that was what I needed at the time. Just someone I could talk to, someone I could be a friend with. Besides Myritza and Sandy, Joe was that person. A brother, I guess you could say.

"So, what do you want for Christmas?" Joe asked, looking at me.

My pen paused, I lifted it off the paper, but I didn't turn to look at Joe. What did I want? What was it that I really wanted for Christmas?

"I guess you could say I want a family for Christmas." I answered truthfully, turning towards him. "I guess that's all that I really want. I want a real family, a real family for Christmas. I want a home to call my own."

He draped his arm around my shoulder. "Maybe you'll get it. I know I earned myself another sister, which I kind of like."

And I got a brother. So to say, I guess.

* * *

**Well there you go. What do you guys think? **


	16. Chapter 16

Monday came around sooner than expected.

Myritza was packing up her things for school, I had already done that earlier and was looking for some toast to eat from the kitchen. Ms. Patricia was trying to get Summer up, and Vanessa, well she and I still weren't on speaking terms.

Vanessa came into the kitchen as I spread some peanut butter on my toast. She looked at me, I'm sure she did even I didn't see her I could smell her. She wore some of the most potent perfume a person could wear. She and I had not spoken in the time since Saturday, since that big blow out I had with Brandon.

The doorbell rang, and much to my surprise, Joe was to at that moment and he answered the door.

"Who's at the door, Joe?" Ms. Patricia called as she walked down the stairs.

"Uh, it's Sketch, I mean Spencer." Joe responded.

I walked out into the front room with toast in hand and found the senior football player there at the door. What was he doing there.

"Hi, Mrs. Anoa'i. I was wondering if I could drive Annie to school today. We have first period together and…"

"I don't mind." Ms. Patricia stated. "It's very kind of you to go out of your way to give Annie a ride to school."

"Well, it's not an issue, really. Actually my mom suggested it. Hi, Annie." The football player waved at me.

I swallowed the glob of food in my mouth with an audible gulp. "Hi, Sketch. I'm almost ready. I need to go upstairs to get my backpack."

Finishing off my toast up in the bedroom, I grabbed my backpack and found Summer walking out of her hallway when I left the room.

"Where are you going in a hurry?" She asked.

"Sketch is taking me to school."

"Oh, he's cute." She smiled at me. "So, are you still going to the dance with him?"

"I hope so. He's such a better individual than Brandon, and he's friends with Joe. So I guess that's an added bonus. I have to go. Have a nice day at school, Summer."

"You, too, Annie."

I walked down the stairs with my backpack over my shoulder and smiled at Sketch. He was still standing at the door with Joe, talking to him about football practice. Maybe I found a new reason to stick around after school for today.

"Hey, I'm ready." I announced.

Today I was wearing a green top, and a pair of white skinny jeans but still with my black sneakers. I was going to be needing new shoes, especially for the dance. I still wasn't used to wearing my new cloths, and Myritza had to help me choose what to wear that morning. I had to figure out what not to wear when it came to going out and about.

"You look nice today." Sketch said, glancing over at me.

I smiled to myself. "Thanks. Isn't it sad that I have to have someone else figure out what I would look good in?"

"Actually, I think it's good for you to ask for help in something you obviously don't have a lot of knowledge in. You may be a whiz with writing but everyone can't be perfect."

I felt elated that he acknowledged that I had issues, and he was supportive of it.

"So, what are your plans for Christmas?" I asked, trying to get some sort of conversation going on.

"I'm spending it with my parents. Mom's not doing as well as we had wanted her to be." The tone he used was something along the lines of sadness.

"How long has she had cancer?"

"She's had breast cancer for several years now. I was a freshmen here at Union when I found out that she had breast cancer. Most of the money we get goes to her medical stuff so we get by but just barely."

I could almost feel for him, I could understand what it was to have to go through life without much to my name.

"I have been offered a scholarship to UCLA for football. I'm not sure if I should."

"Because of your mom, I understand." I said.

He sighed. "It's just, football is something that I am good at. But…my mom."

"I thought you were also good at artwork and drawing."

"I am, I really am, but it just seems more plausible to go to college for football." He responded.

"What would your mother like?"

Sketch smirked. "She just wants me to be happy. I mean my Dad works hard and relentlessly for her, for us, but he wants to see me succeed with football."

I could see the conflict Sketch was having. His mother wanted him to be happy but a father always wants to see his son succeed in life. Not that I understood anything about football but I understood that it was a big time passion for a lot of Americans.

By the time that Sketch and I got to school, it was nearing time to get to first class.

"Are you going to stay after school today?" Sketch asked as we walked into Mr. Scott's room.

"I was thinking about it." I answered truthfully. "I like helping with the set up and take down of the football practice cones."

"I know Mr. Olsen likes that, too." He laughed stopping at my desk. "Actually I think a lot of the guys are grateful for your help. That means we don't have to do it and it means we can get out of there fast than usual."

"Also, I get some homework done by the time practice is over." I added as a few of our classmates entered the room. "So, yeah, I'll see you after school today. Aren't you in my lunch anyway?"

"Actually no, I'm in the second lunch. Sorry."

"No, that's quite all right. I feel kind of bad that I haven't noticed you before. I mean it's sort of hard to miss you." I motioned to his large physique. "You're built like that wrestler, Triple H, minus that long blond hair. Also you don't have that big of a nose."

He laughed. "Thanks. I didn't take you for a wrestling fan."

"I'm not. But apparently living with the Anoa'i family, I'm exposed to their love of wrestling. Mr. Sika got me hooked onto the story aspect of it, you know. It's like a big soap opera or something like that." I shrugged as I sat down at my desk.

Brandon came in, a smug look to his face. It was a little perplexing seeing him now. It was something of a new side, the side that didn't get what he wanted. And at that moment he wanted me but I wasn't going to give in.

"So, I was thinking, Annie." Brandon said, looking down at me as he walked up to me as I sat at my desk.

"No, not Annie. Annella." I corrected. "And you were interrupting my conversation with Sketch." Not to mention he had a stale smell of alcohol on him.

"Look, I know that I am not the person you can see yourself with but you have to give me a chance."

"I've given you chance after chance." I didn't see Mr. Scott come into the room. "I gave up people so that you could be near me. But I found out the true colors that you are, Brandon. You are someone I don't want to associate with. Now, for the last time, get away from me."

Suddenly his hand came down, smacking the top of my desk so that even several other kids jumped. But I didn't. "Damn it, will you listen to me."

"That's enough." Mr. Scott pulled Brandon back. "Go sit at your desk so I can take roll call. You, too, Sketch. From this moment on, you three are not going to speak to each other during class, and the only words I want you to hear from any of you is answering my questions. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Scott." I answered, keeping my back straight.

"Yes, sir." Sketch answered.

But Brandon didn't answer. He just went back to the forth row seat and sat there through out the rest of the class.

* * *

The air in my lungs burned. Track running was still and forever always be my most hated part of my time at Union High School. I hated it, I especially hated it at that moment. As I trudged along the track, jogging mostly, I kept my attention forward.

I felt a shoulder shove me, colliding with my shoulder and the brunette hair of Vanessa as she ran ahead of me. She looked over her shoulder at me, smirking. I glared at her, before picking up my pace. She wanted to play that game, then lets see who could make it across the finish line. Her eyes widened as I came right at her.

"Pick it up, ladies." Ms. Taylor called out to a few stragglers behind me.

We were more than halfway finished with the lap, Vanessa and I were. Joe and a few others had already finished their lap and they stood around to watch as I took off running after Joe's sister. Though she was more athletic than me, I was more determined. So it was on.

Kids began to cheer us on as Vanessa and I sprinted side by side each other. At my last school I had the fortunate experience of being involved with the track team, assistant to the coach, manager of the team, and I had learned some of the basics to being a good sprinter. Head down, eyes forward, pacing my strides to get further along the track. There was one minor issue, Vanessa was taller than me and more athletic. Okay so that was two issues.

I huffed and puffed as I slowed down once I crossed the line. Vanessa was ahead of me still on the track getting congratulated by the group of girls she was close to, most of them on the cheer squad. I had lost the foot race, loosing out to Vanessa by about ten feet. I wasn't good enough, I wasn't good enough to beat her after she had hit me on the track.

"Wow, you know how to hussle." Joe said as I leaned on my knees trying to catch my breath.

"But it wasn't enough." I croaked out. "It wasn't enough to stop her from hitting me."

"Hitting you?"

"Shoulder shoved, that's what she did."

"Looks who's the queen now, Foster Kid!" Vanessa yelled out, getting cheers from her friends.

Joe groaned, running his hand over his head. "Annie, I'm…"

"Save it, Joe. I'm done with this. I'm done with her." I turned and headed towards Mr. Olsen as he called for the Sophomores to gather near him. "I have to go."

I really, really hated her. I didn't care if she was Joe's sister, she was close to being so abusive to me. Something had to give, something had to stop. Someone had to stop her rampage.

Maybe it was me.

Mr. Olsen grabbed my attention, calling out to me. "How is your eye doing?" He asked when he walked up to me. "It looks better."

"It feels better. It's not as swollen as it had been since Friday."

"That's good. Is there anything you want to talk about?"

"I don't understand, Mr. Olsen."

"I saw what Vanessa did during track, I also heard what she said."

The best that I could come up with was, "She's jealous of me, I think that's what it is." I answered truthfully. "I'm me, just me, sir. And she's had this interest in a guy, Kellett, for I don't know how long. When he was interested in me, she was really, really angry with me. Now, it's like it's all a competition to her. Even though I don't have the guy."

"Does it have to do with the dance?"

"I don't know. I don't know what her issue is. I mean, I live with her family. I'm the foster kid, yes, but they are only there because there was no other home for me back in Miami."

He nodded. "I suppose she isn't used to people coming into the house, people she doesn't know."

I gave a single shoulder shrug. "It's not like they are going to adopt me or something like that. I'm sure my social worker already has a home lined up for me back in Miami. It's just that it seems like everything is getting out of hand with her."

"Do you want me to speak with her?"

"And if you do that, all hell will break loose." I answered truthfully. Then I shook my head. "No sir, I think I can handle this on my own. I may have to talk to her mom about it."

Mr. Olsen sighed. "Just know you can come to me if anything needs to be done. Let's go play some tennis today, huh?" He motioned for me towards the courts.

After class it was the same thing, Sandy and I get ready to leave for lunch. Usually the bubbly and bright one, Sandy wasn't. I wasn't in the mood at the time, maybe that's why she was so quiet. I was in no mood to talk.

"I'll see you at lunch." Sandy said as she grabbed her bag.

"Yeah, sure." I answered sitting down on the locker room bench so that I could put my shoes on.

"By the way, you look good today." She smiled at me before walking out of the locker room.

If Vanessa was done changing I wasn't sure. I left without giving her a chance to throw ammunition at me. Joe was outside the door, with Mike and Sam. The three greeted me with hugs and Joe slung an arm around my shoulders as we all headed out to the cafeteria.

The table was full of football players and Sandy, Jess and I. Jess and I had gotten to be good friends since my time in her PE class. She sat on one side of Joe and I sat on the other, facing towards where the rest of the cheerleaders usually sat. And true to form, they were sitting with Brandon, who seemed like the king of the Queens. It didn't bother me though, what did bother me was what happened.

I had seen a girl with big coke bottle glasses sitting alone. It's not that I didn't want to get to know her, I was always otherwise preoccupied with my own hectic life to notice anyone else. I hated that. I could easily get blinded. As the cheerleaders giggled over something Brandon had said, I see this girl walking by their table with a tray of her food. She kept her head down, her blah colored hair was similar in color to mine, held back in two braided pigtails that rested over her shoulders. Where Vanessa was sitting at in the table was on the end, right where the girl was walking. I saw Vanessa's foot slide out intentionally and then the glasses girl tripped over that foot. I stood up just as the girl and the tray clattered to the floor.

"You're such a klutz, Dara." Vanessa cackled liked the evil witch that she was.

"Annie what are you doing?" Joe asked as I started towards the cheerleaders.

Dara, that was her name, looked at me as I stood in front of her.

"Wow you are pathetic. Look, the scrounge wants to stand up for you, Dara." Olivia, another one in the Bitch Squad said.

Suddenly I wasn't alone anymore. There was the football team, Jess and Sandy standing there. I leaned down and offered my hand to the fallen girl, hoping to get her to trust me. When she placed her hand in mine, I helped her up to her feet. There were a few splotches of ketchup dotting the front of her shirt and she really did look embarrassed.

"You okay?" I asked, ignoring the cackles from the rest of the cheer squad and then there was Brandon.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You don't need to stand up for me." She said, jerking from my grasp.

"I'm not standing up for you, I'm standing you up." I replied glancing at Vanessa who was still sitting down but having a sibling stare off with Joe.

"What is your issue, Vanessa? What is so damn wrong with you that you have to lash out at everyone else?"

"I don't think that's any of your business, Joseph." She crossed her arms over her chest.

"It is. If it's about Annie…"

"It's all about her. It's all about the foster kid."

"Why are you so bashing against me? Oh, that's right, I mixed things up at your house. Hey, everyone, wanna hear Vanessa Anoa'i's big secret." I raised my voice so that the entire cafeteria could hear. "The foster kid, that's me, Annella Grange, has been living with Vanessa and her family for more than a week. Isn't that something?" I asked, causing a scene, no more so than what Vanessa did, in the cafeteria.

She was mortified. The tough girl dissolved as the rest of the cheerleaders stared at her.

"And you want to know why, it's not just about me living with her, I actually had a guy interested in me. Him." I pointed to Brandon. "The biggest snob in school, Mr. High and Mighty himself, who was dumped because he is a self centered Jackass. And you want to know what else?" I asked.

"What?" A round of voices called out.

"She's pissed because now she's not the person everyone else gives a damn about. So I'm telling you right now, Vanessa, get that self pitying head of yours out of your ass, grow up and move on. Soon, I'll be gone and you won't have to deal with me. Don't drag anyone else into your own hell. Because I am through with you."

I turned and I left in a huff. What better place to go than to the library. At least there would be quiet there.

* * *

**Now I really need you honest opinions about this chapter. I'm not sure if this was a good chapter update or not. What do you think?**


	17. Chapter 17

Myritza waited for me at the door to Mr. Wu's class. Creative Writing, my saving grace when it came to school. I felt the need to just relish in the glow of happiness of a fifty minutes a day, five days a week. But this day, it was not on my agenda.

"I heard what happened at lunch." She said as we walked into class. Sandy was already sitting at our designated table waiting for us. "You shot down my sister."

"I don't want to talk about it, Myritza." I responded.

There was a lull in the conversation. She looked a bit sad, saddened by the fact that I wasn't going to talk about what happened. I was done. I was done with it all. There was no more fight in me and it was a matter of time before I physically lashed out at someone, an action I did not want to do.

"Okay, class," Mr. Wu said walking into the class. "I want to hear how your stories have been coming along. Let's start with, oh Ms. Grange, will you share with us what you have been doing with your story?"

I looked up at my teacher and sighed. This wasn't one of my better days.

"Um, I know I said that I wanted to make this into a conversation between the three spirits of Christmas and Judah, but I changed my idea about what to write about. I started getting blocked, I just didn't have the joy of writing that angle. So I scrapped it and went with something else."

"So what did you do instead?" Mr. Wu asked, readjusting his bow tie.

"I decided to write what I know. As a foster kid, I decided to write about a boy who is placed into the home with an elderly couple, named the Misers. Mary Miser and Haniel- Hans- Miser. The Misers are Jewish, and Perry, the boy, has always celebrated Christmas. I've gotten to a part where Perry breaks the Misers menorah when he was playing around with a ball in the house."

"So, what are you going to do next?" My teacher asked.

"I'm going to explain what Hanukkah really was, have Mary explain what Hanukkah really means to Perry. And then at the end, on Christmas Morning, I will have the Misers give Perry gifts, so that he doesn't feel like his holidays aren't ruined."

"Are you going to have the Misers adopt Perry?" A girl from the side of the room asked.

"I'm leaving that open ended because nothing is ever happily ever after in real life." I said, looking back down at my notebook.

"A story should be happily ever after." One of the other classmates said.

"Not necessarily, while everyone is looking for a good ending, that isn't how life works." Mr. Wu said. Then he looked at me and nodded. "That is a good look into how life really is. Life is a story and not all lives are happily ever after. Some end before it should."

Don't I know that, I thought looking at my teacher.

"Okay, who wants to go next? Claire…" Mr. Wu pointed to another student in the class.

After class, Sandy, Myritza and I separated for our separate classes. I could hear people whispering, people talking about what happened at lunch everywhere I went. Science class and History, it was all the same. People just seemed to be talking about how I stood up to Vanessa, the Queen Bitch and her crew. Also, it was about helping someone in need, Dara. And about putting Brandon in his place also. Calling him out.

I was lining up those cones again, placing them in a line about every two yards or so apart. It was after school, time for football and cheerleading practice to start. At least this helped me get my mind off of what was going on at school. Mr. Olsen was talking to his team, there was a game coming up and everyone was hyped up about it. State was coming, and they had a chance, a slim chance but a chance at winning this time. I was excited for Joe, Sketch and the rest of the team.

"What do you mean I'm no longer part of the team?"

I looked up when I heard Brandon's voice. How much longer was I going to have to deal with him?

"Your attitude is not what this team needs. And you've been dropping the ball when it comes to getting to practice." The coach said, crossing his arms. "You need to present yourself as a part of this team, rather than above it."

I started towards the bleachers where my stuff was located. Best just to ignore him, that's what I thought at least.

"You!" Brandon yelled storming over to me. "It is all your fault."

"My fault, you've been screwing up long before I came here." I stood my ground, hands on my hips. "You don't need my help to look like a fool."

When Brandon took a step towards me, Mr. Olsen grabbed the boy. "You need to leave, right now, Brandon. You're not apart of the team anymore. You need to leave our team manager alone."

"Team Manager?" Brandon and I asked together, both motioning at me as we did so.

"Yeah, she makes sure that set up is in order and she takes it down for us." Mr. Olsen turned to him. "Now leave."

"Wait until my father hears about this. He'll have your job. As for you, Annie, I'll see you at class." The way he said that made my skin crawl.

Brandon trudged off, down to the student parking near where the busses were picking up kids to take them home. The senior got into his Corvette and then drove off like a madman, or just plain mad. He brought it on himself, he did this to himself. I just voiced my opinion about it.

"Team Manager? What does that job entail?" I asked looking back at Mr. Olsen.

"You do plenty enough. You're very much apart of this team though. That just means you have to come to the games with us."

"Sure, I guess. Um, thanks for stopping him."

"Any time you have an issue with him, come to me. I'll make sure everything will get sorted out."

That was good to know, I thought as I watched the cheerleaders coming towards the track.

Vanessa glared at me, Myritza waved and Sandy called out to me, after giving her boyfriend a hug. Since the previous week, Sandy and Kevin had been connected at the hip with each other. I was glad for them. Sketch looked up at me when Sandy had called out to me. He smiled at me before putting his helmet in. My stomach did a flip flop when he did that.

I sat down on the bleachers and proceeded to take on my homework from math. I decided to do my writing back at the house when I had access to my laptop.

"Come on, Myritza, move your slow ass!" I heard Vanessa yell.

"Leave your attitude back in the locker room, Vanessa." Ms. Taylor reprimanded the Captain cheerleader. "We need to work on our routine as a team."

I ignored the glare that Joe's younger sister gave me. She was still acting like a total snobby bitch. And from conversations I was having with Myritza and Joe, she was never like this. Not until I came around.

So technically speaking, I created a monster.

* * *

Sketch and Joe were hanging out in the backyard, tossing around a football to each other. I sat on the back porch writing a rough draft to my history essay. Since when do they give out history essays? Every once in a while I would look up and watch the two boys together. It was a cute thing to see.

"Annie, come out and toss around the ball with us." Joe called, motioning for me to join them. "Sketch has to leave soon."

I put down my notebook and pencil and then headed onto the grass, holding up my hands. It's not that I didn't know how to toss around a football, I use to do this with the younger foster kids in previous foster homes. So when Joe tossed me the ball, he laughed when I caught it.

"Wow, you're amazing." Sketch said, smiling at me.

"Being a foster kid has its ups and downs. I was forced to play pass the football to younger foster siblings throughout my childhood. I picked up a thing or two. Even though I don't know how to play football myself, I at least wanted to know how to throw it." I said.

Gripping near the tip of the ball, since my hands were smaller than theirs, I threw it towards Joe, giving it a good spin. It was one of the few things going for me. I liked the fact that I could admit this to them.

"Once we're through with you, we'll get you good enough to be a running back some day." Sketch told me.

"Hey, you know my parents gives us kids about fifty dollars for Christmas shopping." Joe said as Sketch caught his throw. "I'm thinking of heading out somewhere that has makeup in it. Seems like that's the only thing my sisters like."

"Don't ask me, man, I don't have sisters so I don't know anything about makeup. What about you, Annie? Know anything about makeup?"

I caught the ball thrown at me. "No, nothing. My head is usually in a book. Though I wouldn't mind a book about writing fantasy novels. I don't really know anything about fantasy, I haven't really written anything like that." I answered. "But, I do know what Myritza is fond of horses, in part to the fact that our mascot is the Mustangs."

"Ah, I forgot about that. Thanks for the idea." Joe said catching my pass to him.

"What about you, what is something you want for Christmas?"

"I'm not sure on that. I kind of want something cultural, you know Samoan."

Samoan, huh? I wasn't well versed with that stuff but I had heard some of the stories that Mr. Sika told me if I asked about Hawaii. Sharks was something Joe liked, from what I could tell, but there was one thing that always seemed to pop up, sea turtles.

There was a sea turtle myth, a goddess named Kauila, but that tale was one of a few I didn't know. Joe had a figurine of a sea turtle on his dresser. Maybe he could do for a new one. This one was chipped. But that meant I would have to ask Mr. Sika or Ms. Patricia about giving me some money.

I fumbled the ball when I realized that I had lost myself into thoughts about gift ideas for Joe. I forgot about Sketch all together. "Sorry, I didn't mean to zone out. I was thinking." I said leaning down to pick up the football. "Anyway, how you found a tux for the dance yet, Sketch?"

"I'm sort of reusing the one I used in a cousin's wedding. I hope that's not a problem for you."

"Nope, I don't mind. I'm sure you'll look good in it anyway." I answered tossing him the ball.

After a few more rounds of tossing the football around Sketch decided to leave. He needed to check in on his mom, she hadn't been feeling too good that morning when he went to school.

"I hope she feels better." I said as I stood at the driver's side door of his jeep.

"Thanks. I'll tell her you said that." He smiled as he started up the engine.

I stepped back so that he could pull out and drive off.

Now it was time for more homework.

As I got to the bedroom Myritza looked up. "Hey, Annie, do you know anything about fractions? I'm having some issues with dividing them. Can you help?" She asked.

Well so much for trying to do my own homework. "Sure, show me what you're having problems with." I said walking over to her desk in the room.

My own math homework was needed to be finished but helping someone was also important to me.

"So in order to divide two fractions, one needs to be flipped, and then you multiply and then you reduce the remaining fraction into its lowest form." I told her, showing her step by step of what she had to do. "Think you can do it now?"

"Yeah, thank you. Sorry if I took you from your homework." She said.

"Nah, it's okay." I plopped down in my own desk chair. "I just have a quiz on the probability stuff that Mrs. Olsen is going over tomorrow and I really want to pass it. Math and me don't go together."

Settling into my homework, diving into math was the only thing that got my mind off of my issues. Homework seemed to be a good thing for me. If only when I wasn't working on homework I could ignore the fact that Vanessa was still being a total ass to me.

"Girls I need to talk to you both." I heard Ms. Patricia say some time later.

I walked out of the bedroom to find Vanessa standing in the hall, Myritza right behind me.

"Not you, Myritza, this is a conversation for your sisters and me. Sorry, Vanessa, Annie and me. I got a call from one of your school's councilors today about a fight you two had today. Let's go into the front room and talk about this."

Mr. Sika was just getting in when Vanessa, Ms. Patricia and I sat down around the coffee table in the front room. I was worried that maybe this was the moment that I would get into trouble. Starting fights wasn't something I had ever done before, so standing up for myself was just the strangest thing for me to do. Wow, I really was a goodie two shoes.

"I want to know what is going on between the two of you." Ms. Patricia said. "What is going on?"

"Nothing, Mom." Vanessa said.

"Really, it didn't sound like anything. If anything it sounded like Annie was getting back at you for all the stuff that you've been doing to her."

"Stuff, what stuff? Have you been telling lies again?" Vanessa turned to look at me. She was still playing the innocent person.

"Your brother told me that you were the one that dumped her things outside on the first day back from Thanksgiving break."

"But it wasn't me. She was the klutz."

"I thought I taught you better, Vanessa." Ms. Patricia crossed her arms, staring hard at her daughter. "I thought I taught you to respect everyone, to treat them how you would like to be treated."

"You never asked us if we wanted another mouth in this house. You never asked us our opinion. I had to uproot myself from my room just so that she could have my room, her and Myritza." Vanessa pointed at me. "She came in here and ruined our perfectly happy life. And I was sick of it. I was sick of people taking from me. Taking my house, my room, my grades."

"So tripping that Dara girl was just for fun, to make her feel as low as you?" I asked, speaking up.

"Yeah. I mean, sure she's like the smartest girl at our school but come on, I was pissed off at you."

"This, this is why I am not impressed with you, Vanessa. We were trying to do something good for another person."

"Couldn't she have been put in another house?"

"There was no other room at any other foster home in Miami. After my last foster parents abused me, starved me in a locked closet, when I ran away, there was no other home for me. Boo hoo, the foster kid was abused, boo hoo, yeah I know what you're going to say. I was starved, I nearly starved to death. You think I got this skinny because I was on a diet. I was starved." I motioned to my body. "Ms. Trent wanted me to be put in a home where I would be accepted and loved, to be looked after, for someone to finally give a damn and you're the one that thought I was just crashing your party."

"You're too perfect."

"Perfect? No one's perfect, Vanessa." Ms. Patricia voiced in.

"No, no one's perfect. Like I think I can fix everyone. I think I can help people, but that's not the case. They have to want to be helped in order for me to help them. Brandon couldn't see that his actions are what kicked him off the team. And then I expect everyone to hurt me eventually."

"What do you want me to do, say I'm sorry. You ruined my image, Annella."

"You ruined it on your own. I just allowed people to see how ashamed you were to have a foster kid living with you in your house." I said, my hand threw up as I stood. "For crying out loud, I'm not even going to be here much longer I bet. You'll have your family and your old life back when I'm gone. How about we just shove this aside and live with the fact that we're stuck here together until I leave?" I asked.

She didn't say anything for a good long while. Like she was thinking about it.

"Fine. Let's try to forget about today. I won't treat you like a piece of trash, but you better not treat me like one either."

"I won't if you don't." I answered.

"Fine, then it's agreed. We'll treat each other respectfully. I don't know why but I'm sick and tired of fighting you."

"I'm finished fighting you, too." I answered. "Can I go back to my homework? I have a quiz I need to prepare for tomorrow."

Mr. Sika and Ms. Patricia both nodded, allowing us to go our separate ways in the house.

"You think they will become more civil by Christmas?" I heard Mr. Sika asked when I got to the top of the stairs.

"I hope so. It would be a good Christmas miracle for that to happen." She replied, touching his knee softly.

It would be a miracle all right. I couldn't agree more than that.

* * *

**Opinions, I really need them now. I'm starting to slow down, running out of ideas. Anything you can say will be helpful. Thanks. And thanks for reading. **


	18. Chapter 18

Joe was asleep when I walked into his room the next morning. Why was it that I was relegated to waking him up, I asked myself as I walked up to the side of his bed.

"Joe?" I asked.

"Mmmm," he mumbled.

"Time to get up." When he didn't move, I placed my hand on the middle of his back and shook him. "Come on, Joe, get up."

"Do you want to get a spear again, Annie?"

"I'm the only one willing to wake your cranky butt up. Now get up." I lightly tugged on his long tresses. "Come on, Joe, it really is time to get up."

He flipped over onto his back, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Ever since that rude awakening I had given Joe, and then him spearing me to the floor, scaring me half to death, I stopped doing that. I was going to wake him up with some TLC, before it turned into a TLC match.

"Get up, Joe. Time to get ready for school." I patted his stomach slightly before turning towards his bedroom door.

But I had just turned when Joe caught my hand. Stopping, I turned to look at him. His thumb rubbed the back of my hand.

"Are you okay?" Joe asked, letting go of my hand. "Is everything all right with you?"

"Yeah, why?"

He shrugged. "I guess I thought you would be angry with what happened recently."

"I'm fine, Joe. Nothing is wrong. Though I think that maybe once things cool down, Vanessa and I might get to know each other. I can't say we will be chummy but, I think she and I might get a long without killing each other."

Joe pushed back his blue blankets and draped his legs over the side of the bed. When Joe stood up, he stretched his arms over his head, yawning. I fought the urge to yawn myself.

"So, are you going to practice today?" He asked, moving towards his dresser and began pulling pants out.

"Uh, yeah. I'm the team manager now so I have to be there." I fiddled with my fingers. "I need to go get ready for school. I think I want to keep my routine of taking the bus to school. So I need to get my things together and head on out. I'll see you at school."

"Sure, Annie." He reached out and gave me a hug, pressing my face into his chest. "I'll see you later."

I thought I had gotten rid of those feelings but they were still there apparently. Sketch gave me a sense of hope that I found a place to put my feelings, not for Joe but for Sketch.

Myritza was putting her school stuff in her backpack when I got back from waking Joe up. I looked at her and then at my own desk. Where was my backpack, where was my laptop?

"Myritza, have you seen my stuff?" I asked her.

She looked up, brows furrowed. "I don't know. I thought that you left them there and you never took your laptop anywhere."

No, I never took my laptop anywhere outside of the bedroom. But then there was my missing backpack, the backpack that I had never left outside of the bedroom now.

"Ms. Patricia, my backpack and laptop are missing." I said walking into the kitchen where the woman almost always seemed to be in the mornings.

She looked up. "You didn't take them down this morning, did you?"

"No, ma'am. I haven't."

Ms. Patricia stopped what she was doing before calling out to her daughter. "Vanessa! Vanessa Marie, I want you in this kitchen right now!"

"Coming, Mom!" She yelled.

Vanessa came down the stairs then came into the kitchen. When she saw me standing there, she faltered. She looked between me and then at her mom, as if she was not expecting something to happen.

"What?" She asked, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Vanessa, did you take Annie's things again?"

"No." Vanessa said, shaking her head.

Lie, that was a lie.

I jerked so fast around her that I knocked into her. I ran outside to a sight I would never forget. My stuff was strewn out around the front yard again. My laptop was broken into pieces. And I didn't have a chance to put the latest update onto my flashdrive. My homework, my writings, everything was everywhere. I had lost everything I worked so hard to get done. I was almost done with my story, Perry's Winter Holidays was the story that nearly done and was about ready to turn into the Miami Sun newspaper. It was all ruined.

"Annie," I turned to look at Joe, pain etched on his face, along with Myritza since she was standing there with him. "What the hell happened?"

I couldn't answer him. How could I tell him that I was looking at the devastation of my school life, in front of me. How could I get through that? How could I just piece it back together, piece back together the fact that even though she had promised, Vanessa destroyed something prized to me?

"Oh my God." I heard Ms. Patricia say as she stepped out onto the porch.

A stray gust of wind picked up some of my papers, scattering them further along on the front lawn. Desolate, that's what I felt. It felt like I was in a whirlwind, just when the climax of the story hits the peak and the main character feels like everything was in chaos and it wasn't going to get better.

"Vanessa!" Ms. Patricia screamed, turning to storm into the house but stopped when seeing the girl standing there. "How could you do this? How could you do this to someone else?"

"If she could ruin my life, then I can ruin hers." Vanessa shrugged. "I mean, she ruined my image. So I ruined something of hers."

I knelt, defeated. Reaching out, I picked up a few pieces of papers and then tried to put them in my backpack. But I couldn't, I couldn't put them in my backpack. It was shredded, ruined beyond repair or what any duct tape could fix. And that's when I started crying, rocking on my knees. My hands pressed to my face while I wailed in anguish.

"It's ruined." I looked over at the crumbled piece of technology. "It's all ruined. I didn't save my story to my flashdrive and I was almost finished with it, it was almost done and I would have turned it in before my deadline."

I felt arms around me, I felt Joe kneeling next to me. I leaned my head on his shoulder and cried some more.

"It's okay," was all that he could say.

But it wasn't okay.

Not for me at least.

* * *

Luckily Summer had a backpack that I could use. It would be good to use, sure, but it wasn't like the backpack that I had for years. It held the memories that I remembered. My great escape from my last foster home, the many different times I had moved from home to home, house to house. It was some of the few things that I had. By the time I got on the bus, I was defeated. I didn't want to talk to anyone, I leaned my head against the window and just let the motion of the bus move me forward.

"What's wrong with you?" Sketch asked when he picked me up from the bus spot at school. "You look like someone killed your dog."

"Actually, Vanessa killed my laptop. I lost about half of my nearly finished story." I said. "She tore up my backpack and dumped everything out on the front yard. I'm going to call Ms. Trent and ask her to send me to a group home."

"What, why?" Sketch stopped me.

"Because, I'm through. I've had it with this family. I've had it with Vanessa. She ruined my laptop, my story, my everything. Summer was a little harder to get through but Vanessa seemed to be the one that wanted to ring my bell the moment she heard that I was coming. I screwed up her life, you know. So she decided she was going to screw with mine."

"I'm sorry about your story. I know you have a deadline to send it in to the Miami Sun." He rubbed my back. "Come on, I'll walk you to class."

He and I didn't say anything, all that happened was Sketch linking my arm through his and he walked with me. That's it, that's all I really needed. And it was an attempt to show that he was there for me.

"I've decided to accept the scholarship to UCLA." Sketch said. "I can take art classes some other time. But, football just seems to fit with my lifestyle right now. And I'm really good at it."

"I'm proud of you, Sketch. No, really." I said when I saw the look on his face. "At least you know where you're going. I'm not even sure what tomorrow will bring."

"But that's a good thing. You can always change your future to however you want it to." He told me.

Maybe he was right.

"So, what are you going to do now? What will happen with your story?"

"I'll just rewrite what I remembered and work from there. I'm sure I can use Myritza's laptop or the family computer. It's just I was almost finished with it. I can turn back to my notes and see what I've written about for the scenes I had written down."

We had finally gotten to English class, the one I had been dreading because Brandon would be there. I had been a little worried about what was going to happen. How would he react to me, because in essence I was the one that called him out for being a geezer. It was his own fault that he wasn't keeping up his part in the football team. He was slacking, thinking all he had to do was show up at games. Practice was for losers.

"Hi, Mr. Scott." I said as I walked into the class. "I need to tell you something. It's in regards to homework." "Ah yes, your Dickens report. How is it going?"

"My laptop was smashed but I saved it to my flashdrive. I just didn't have enough time to print it out this morning. Can I go to the library to print it out. I just thought I should let you know what's going on so that I'm not marked down." I said, biting my lip.

"How did your laptop get smashed?"

"In an altercation with one of the girls I live with. I don't really want to talk about it. But I do have my report, but I need to print it out. Do you mind if I quickly go to the library and print it out?" I asked.

"Sure, that's fine with me." My teacher nodded.

I was leaving the classroom when Brandon appeared. We literally ran right into each other at the door and I had to step back in slight fear that he would retaliate or something.

"Sorry about that." I mumbled as he walked in.

"I hope you have your Dickens report, Brandon. You're falling behind in class again." Mr. Scott spoke up, giving me ample time to slip out.

Usually speaking when we have morning announcements, I always ignored them so that I could sit and write. While waiting for my pages of my report to get printed I listened to the morning announcements this time around.

"And finally we have the nominations for Winter Queen and King this year. For winter Queen we have Vanessa Anoa'i, who was our last year's queen. Sandy Wilson, a cheerleader for our award winning cheerleaders. And finally we have a late entry. Drum roll please." The kid said before drumming on the desk he was at. I could hear it. "Annella Grange, the new girl with a big heart."

Did that really just happen? No, who would want me to be a Queen of the dance? I mean, I just hoped that I would go there for some fun. Not be placed in a competition with my most hated rival.

"And now for the Winter King. We have Spencer 'Sketch' Carlson, a great football player and great person. Then we have, well would you look at that, Brandon Kellett, our own Quarterback. And last but not least, wrestling prodigy, Leati 'Joe' Anoa'i, all from the football team. Well, whoever wins, this will be one handsome man standing up there with a crown on his head."

I still couldn't get over the fact that I was chosen, nominated really, for Winter Queen. This fact dawned on me the longer school went on.

"Hey, good luck on making Queen at the dance." Someone said in passing.

Really were they talking to me? Most people who talked to me were the team and some of the people I associated myself with. They were congratulating me, which was something of a new thing for me. People usually only congratulate me when it came to my writing. But at that point it was something new to me.

"You think you have what it takes for Winter Queen?" Vanessa asked as we were getting ready for PE.

"I'm not sure. It's next week, a lot can happen in that time." I said tugging on my shirt.

"In my opinion, I think you should be Queen, Annie." Sandy voiced her opinion. "I mean, you're better at a lot of stuff than we are."

I turned to look at her. "Yeah, screwing up people's lives. I'm pretty darn good at that." I remarked slamming my locker closed. "I'm heading out to line up. I'll see you there."

I was conflicted. I was mad, sad, it was just stewing deep within me. It was getting to the point where I just wanted to go away. I had not thought about this dance for a while, but now it just seemed like a waste of time to go to.

Track eased my mind of my burdens. I focused on my breathing, my steps. I focused on my heart, I felt it beating in my chest. Pressing repeatedly up against my ribs. Even though I was not the fastest, I was not the best and the only best was what I could do.

"Come on, Annie." I heard Sandy yell from the finish line. "You can do it."

"Come on, Girl." Joe also called out. "Get that butt of yours moving."

"Yeah, move it, Foster Kid." I heard Vanessa say as she buzzed by me.

I picked up the speed. Rounding one side of the track, just right behind Vanessa. The students that had done their lap were cheering for us, telling us to get to the finish line. And still, my best wasn't good enough. Vanessa won by a country mile, or at least another good ten feet ahead of me. No matter how much I tried I could not best her when it came to running. I was just not as athletic as she was, not as tall as she was either.

"You did great, Annie." Joe said as I leaned on my hands and knees, panting.

"Thanks." I mumbled through my panting spell.

"All right, that's what I call a hustle." Ms. Taylor said, clapping. "That was a better run than the last time. Now, we're making a change up in today's class. Half of Mr. Olsen's class is going to be going up against half of my class in tennis. The other halves will be playing soccer down on the soccer fields. Now…" Ms. Taylor said, looking at the students.

I was lucky enough that Vanessa and I were split up, she went to soccer and I was left with tennis. But so was Joe, Joe was chosen to play tennis with Mr. Olsen's class. So as expected Joe and I came together and were hitting a tennis ball to each other, just lobbing it, not really playing it. It was the high light of my day, just watching Joe smile at me, him and I laughing as I managed to hit the net a few times.

That really was the highlight of my day. Having Joe there with me and having a good time in a time of distress was what I needed.

* * *

**Well, I know it isn't really the update I had planned. But I hope you guys liked it. Thanks for reading. **


	19. Chapter 19

"Where is your rough draft, Annella?" Mr. Wu asked. "You know we always print out rough drafts of our stories this time of the week."

"My laptop crashed on me, sir. I forgot to save what I finished onto a flashdrive." I said, forcing myself not to cry.

"I'm going to have to mark you down for this."

"I know, sir." I told him, my voice wavering slightly. I was on the verge of crying, breaking down in class. "I'll work harder to catch up this time."

He sighed, crossing his arms in thought. Tapping his foot like he usually did when he was thinking, Mr. Wu nodded. "I will cancel this mark down if you promise to turn in a finished rough draft by Monday next week."

Now it was looking up. "What, why? That wouldn't seem fair to the rest of the class."

"Ah, I see. You don't want to be seen as a favorite. Even though I have read your work, your published work mind you, you are a talented young woman. I understand that this assignment is also an assignment that the Miami Sun has issued you, requested actually. So knowing how important this is for you, I am going to go light on you. Okay. Give me your finished rough draft by next Monday and we can fix this ugly grade you have right now."

Myritza smiled at me when I looked at her and Sandy. They nodded at me so I looked back at my teacher and nodded at Mr. Wu.

"Yes, sir. I promise I will have it in by then." I said, smiling slightly. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Now, today we are going to talk about setting within our stories."

There was a collective groan from much of the class. I could understand setting issues within a story, any story. Writing what you know could play a big part, but something like setting could mean different things. Such as, well there is the time frame. Like a month, a year, a week even a few days. The story I had published in the Miami Sun was a weekend at the beach. Setting could also mean a place, like the beach. Setting sets the stage for the effect of a story.

If I were writing a story of my life, I would say that it was the year 2002, I wasn't sixteen just yet and I lived near the beach because of the family I was staying with. The beach would be an integral part of the story because it was where I did my best thinking, working and whatever. Another would be school. So setting tells where the action is happening, right. Much of the action was at home, at school and some times out of it.

And setting changes from scene to scene. And when time changes so does the setting.

At least that was how I understood setting. Much of this class was relearning something I already know. But using it in practice was different.

"So, tell me, how would you change the setting drastically?"

"A storm could change something." I piped up at Mr. Wu's question. "If you work it right, the day could be slightly cloudy but then suddenly a storm rips through town, tearing down electrical lines and stuff that could interfere in the protagonist's plot point."

"Exactly, that's a good one, Annie. So, tonight, I want you to write down different ways you could change the setting and in effect change a plot. You can try to do this for your stories as well."

"Like a snow storm knocking out power so that the only source of warmth and light?"

"Oh, yes." Mr. Wu nodded happily. "That would be a good idea. If yours has snow involved."

Myritza caught my arm as she, Sandy and I left Mr. Wu's classroom. "Hey, how's things going for you? I mean, you are okay right?"

"I would like to spend my time alone, but I'm fine. I was able to print out my history report in the library. Anyway, I have to get to Bio. I'll see you guys after school for practices." I said before turning down the hall.

Whispers, people whispering and looking. Word spread, I heard bits and pieces of laptop and Vanessa mixed in. Apparently keeping a secret in high school was almost nonexistent. I'm sure Joe was more than happy to let the team know what was going on. Mike and Sam probably had a hand in it as well. Vanessa was marked as the school bitch, but it was her fault, right? She could have not tried to destroy my laptop, she could not have tripped up that Dara girl in lunch, but she did it with glee. Why? Why would she do all of that? What was me it with me that she didn't care for?

These questions and others swirled with the rumors and whispers from Bio to History. Nothing every really interesting happened during those classes. They were easily ignored for the most part unless I had to answer a question. But after school, I met up with Mr. Olsen to start putting up the practice cones for work out modes. I took the practice football bag and the cones from Mr. Olsen and headed towards the football field in the center of the track.

I had finished setting up the cones when the football team, decked out in their football gear came out for their two hour practice.

Sketch walked up to me when I was heading back towards my things that were up on the bleachers. He didn't say a word, he didn't even say my name, he just hugged me. I stood almost mortified, feeling hard chest plate thing pressing up against my cheek. His hands pressed into my back, pushing me into his pads, into his body. And just as quickly Sketch had hugged me, he let go.

"What was that for?" I asked, slightly wavering on my feet.

He laughed at me, well chuckled. "Well, you looked like you could use a hug. I mean, everyone knows what happened this morning, what Vanessa did. So, well I figured you needed to know that everything will be okay."

"Thank you, Sketch." I smiled, the urge to cry resting at the brim of my soul was there. "It means a lot to me. I'm sorry if I treated you coldly this morning though."

"No, no need to apologize for something like that. Anyway, I better get off to practice. Maybe you can work on your math or your English homework. But keep an eye out on the practice. Just in case you think of a play that might be good."

"I don't know anything about plays." I tried to say but he was already off towards the huddle.

Ms. Taylor and her cheer squad appeared out at the track a little bit after that. I really was amazed at Myritza and how she could look so grown up, more grown up than me and I was about a year older than her. She had the curves, and the body I wish I was blessed with. With not much in a way of cleavage, I wondered what sort of dress for the dance I could look good in. Would I look good enough to make it to the queen position.

From the look I was getting from Vanessa and a few of the cheerleaders, I'm sure they wished I was a toad. And as Vanessa was a Samoan, she was tall lean and beautiful, while much of my weight centered on my thighs. Sure I was five nothing, with a flat skinny stomach but in my opinion I had thick thighs. And I had blah colored hair. Nothing spectacular. Nothing that was perfect. I would give anything to have hair like Myritza and Vanessa, heck even Joe's hair was perfect. Short and white, with lumps here and there. No wonder why I hid myself in boy cloths before. I had nothing worth looking at.

But with time, change was inevitable. I was changing, I could see it in the things that I was wearing, in some of the things that I did.

Maybe change wasn't all that bad.

* * *

Mike, Sam and Joe headed out for Christmas shopping. Fifty dollars was all that Mr. Sika and Ms. Patricia allowed the kids, and me, to have for Christmas shopping.

"Would you like to go with us?" Joe asked.

"Sorry, no, I have a lot of homework to do. I think I'll go out on my own next time." I answered, looking at the three as they stood in the front room. "But, uh, books on writing fantasy novels or stories will be very grateful. I can't really think of anything besides writing books that I would like."

"Sure, I'll keep that in mind. Come on, guys, I want to get before dinner tonight." Joe said, motioning the two other football players to the front door.

Summer was walking out of the bathroom when I came upstairs to do my homework. I had a good few hours of it, math alone was a killer for me. It killed my patience that's what it did.

"Annie," Summer spoke up, catching me off guard.

"Huh?" I asked as I turned to her. "Yeah, Summer?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, I don't see why not. What's up?"

"How do you know when a boy likes you?"

Not the conversation I was expecting to get into with her. Summer and I had gotten along better, especially since when I told her that I was not there to make her life hell. She had been talking to me a lot more now. Getting my opinion on things. Unfortunately, this was not one of those cases.

"Does he act in a certain way to you?" I asked.

"No, well, he almost always compliments me on how nice I look."

"Lets talk in your room. I don't feel comfortable talking about this in the middle of a hall." I said.

"Yeah, sure. That sounds good."

Vanessa and Summer had to share a room. The house only had four rooms. The master bedroom where the parents slept. Then the room that Myritza and I slept in, Joe had his own room and then that left Vanessa and Summer in the room opposite to the one I slept in.

"So, what did you need to talk to me about?" I asked scanning the room.

The room I slept in was a light peachy color, Joe had blue, this one was, something along the line of brownish in color, sort of a red brown. It was situated much like Myritza's room. Two beds and two desks on opposite sides of the room. There weren't a lot of pictures hanging on the walls, probably because from what I knew, Myritza and Summer shared a room before I came along. So this must have been Vanessa's own room before I had been moved to the Anoa'i house.

"Well, I don't know really. Mom and Dad say I'm too young to be dating."

"You're what, twelve?" I asked.

"Yeah, something like that. But I just want to know if a guy really likes me, you know." She sat down on her bed while I opted to stay standing.

"Well, I can tell you right now, with what I've been through, you have to figure out what kind of guy you would like. Brandon, not so much as nice as he was good looking. He may have looking like one of the Weasley boys from the Harry Potter book but he was by no means Gryffindor material. He was more Slytherin than anything else."

"Yeah, I kind of listened in on you and him when you two were talking on the front porch." She looked down at her feet. "Why did you chose Sketch?"

"Choose Sketch?"

"Yeah, you started hanging around Sketch a lot after that."

"Sketch is someone I can understand. His life isn't perfect. His dad wants him to go to UCLA for a football scholarship but his mom just wants him to be happy. And then there is the fact that his mom has cancer, breast cancer."

"Ouch, I'm sorry to hear that. Have you met her yet?" She asked.

"No, not yet. I mean I would like to but I don't know if she's up for it. From what I've heard, she hasn't been doing well lately." I looked around the room a little bit. "So, what would you like for Christmas?" I asked.

"Nothing really special about this year. I, well, I guess I wouldn't mind one of those game systems, it would give me something to do. But, she motioned to her bed.

There were various stuffed animals on it, from teddy bears to stuffed animals like dogs. "You like stuffed animals, huh?"

"Yeah, it's sort of something I've had. The one thing I would really like would be a stuffed sea turtle. Those are hard to find, even around here."

My mind flashed back to that toy store. There was an entire bin of stuffed sea turtle toys. Well there I have it, a gift idea for Summer.

"Any idea about what Vanessa might want? I mean besides me gone."

"She wants a purse but mom doesn't want to get her one. Something about loosing the last one she had gotten for Vanessa. I mean, it was stolen from school, it was one of those hundred dollar name brand ones, something fifty dollars wouldn't even get her."

"Then she'll just have to be happy with the bag I'll get her, if that's what I'm getting her. I'm not sure what to get for Sketch though, he's a very artsy fartsy kind of person, he loves drawing. Maybe I'll get him some sketch pads and proper pencils." I shrugged at the thought. "I'm not sure. Anyway, is that all? I really need to get my homework finish, I got marked down on my Creative Writing assignment today. I'm expected to get it finished, all the way by Monday so that this bad grade can get replaced."

"Sure, yeah. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you on your homework."

"Don't mention in. It's okay."

Vanessa and I ran into each other in the hall, facing off sort of. That's how I would describe it. It was something of thick situation, thick in tension.

"What were you doing in my room?" She asked.

"Getting gift ideas for Summer." I answered truthfully. "She needed help with something."

Vanessa gave me a look. "Really?"

"Actually she gave me a few ideas for you, Christmas gift ideas."

Now the look turned into mild shock. "You still want to get my Christmas gifts, after all the crap I've been giving you?"

I gave a half shrug. "Sure, why not. I don't want you feeling left out if I got for your family and not for you. I mean, I would feel like I wasn't wanted if I wasn't included. But anyway, yeah, I got a few ideas for you, your sister Summer, but I'm not sure about Myritza. Even though I sleep in the same room as her, I have no idea what to get her. Any ideas."

She huffed a laugh at me. "No, not that I care anyway."

"Oh well, thanks anyway. I have to get going on my Creative Writing assignment." I said moving around her so that I could head downstairs where the family computer was.

"Besides horses, she really likes light blue colors. And she likes anything that you can put into her hair." Vanessa said from her spot at the top of the stairs.

I looked back up at her from where I was halfway down the staircase. "I'll remember that, thanks." I nodded before heading down.

Well that was a shock. Vanessa and I didn't get into a fight, which I thought would be that way. With everything she had put me through that morning, I was surprised she was even civil with me.

I wouldn't hold my breath to her treating me like family. But this odd truce was probably due to the fact that she was grounded for two weeks, maybe even more if she kept up with the tormenting of me.

* * *

**Well, I'm not so sure about this update. I know, not enough Joe but it sort of fits with the story, at least to me it does. So what do you guys really think?**


	20. Chapter 20

The last fixes of the story were underway. I stayed up late several times at the family main computer for several days trying to get Perry's story written. I made sure that I saved the document every fifteen minutes or so, just in case something were to happen. I spent a lot of my free time working on that story, making sure I got in at least a few hours of writing and rewriting in. Sure it was a short story, but still it was well over two thousand words, nearing five to eight thousand. But with my deadline for the finish product looming for Miami Sun, and the need to do well in my other homework, I didn't get out.

It was the last week of school, that Monday when I had to turn in my finished project for Mr. Wu's class. Luckily I didn't have any other writing projects, or reports, to turn in for any of my other classes. Like usual I was one of the first people up in the house, that way I could print out my papers at the printer in the house.

"How is it coming?" I looked up at Ms. Patricia as she walked towards the desktop computer where I was sitting in front of.

"I'm almost done." I responded. "I've finished with writing and rewriting, I just need to print out two copies, one for class and the other to send into the Miami Sun."

"I'll send in the Miami Sun one. You should worry about your school work though."

"I know. The deadline for Miami Sun is this Friday, which is the Dance. I still can't believe that I was nominated for Winter Queen this year."

"Maybe it was all the good work you've been doing." She tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear.

"Good work? How is starting fights, getting in trouble with Vanessa and all the heartache I've endured since I've gotten here good work?"

"You stood up for that girl in front of all the students in the cafeteria, you allowed people to know your thoughts and feelings about certain things, you're getting good grades and you are sort of a celebrity with your writing accomplishments. I would say that was something note worthy."

She was trying to brighten my mood. It was nice but it was sort of, well not so much on the spirit lifting part. I still felt like I was not good enough, no matter what I did.

Okay so that was a lie. I felt good when I wrote, when I write things. Stories take my mind off of everything and it was the one thing that I managed to hold dear to me.

"After practice today, I'm coming by to pick you girls up so we can go dress shopping." Ms. Patricia announced as the second batch of paper started printing.

"Um, okay. I'm not sure if I can find a dress but, if you think we can find something, then I guess we can."

She smiled. "You don't anything about style do you?"

"No, ma'am. I mean, what little that I have is okay, but after being in foster care and some of the stuff that I've had to deal with, fashion was something that was more for comfort and safety than for image. I still love my baggy pants though."

Ms. Patricia laughed. "You do make it look good. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know what's going on today. Now I'll let you get ready for school today."

"Thanks."

* * *

School had become this place where I could blend in. I was neither outspoken, nor was I a quiet person. I had issues with math, Science was a second to math. It seemed like English and my Creative Writing elective class were the only ones I actually enjoyed the most, with history coming close to that. But it was PE that seemed to be a mix bag of emotions.

It was at PE where I had to endure that damned track warm up run. I was one of the few that had issues with running, getting put out by Vanessa every time.

"Come on, Annella, you have to do better than that to beat me." She said as she passed me yet again on this Monday morning.

I couldn't wait for school to get out for winter break that Friday. It was one of those things that I had anticipated since starting at Union High School. Since Mr. Olsen and Ms. Taylor seemed to like to push the students to the brink of exhaustion, running track was the way to go. I would rather sit on my but and write but for some reason, me and physical exercise just did not go together, much like math and me didn't agree to click either.

As I crossed the finish line, Joe, as usual, was standing there with Mike and Sam waiting for me to finish.

"You're doing better, Annie." Mike said, clapping a hand onto my shoulder. "That was faster than last time."

"You think?" I asked, panting while trying to walk off the strain that I was feeling in my feet and legs. Even my lungs burned for oxygen.

He and Sam chuckled, or laughed. "Come on, girl, you're good. Hell you're great. You're doing better than some others that hang around us, Team Manager."

"And stop calling me that." I stood up straight once I was able to. "I didn't do much of anything to get that job."

"I think you need to stop downing yourself, Annie." Joe spoke up. "You earned that spot, whether you want to believe it or not. You're apart of the team."

"Okay, I'm not doubting that. I like that thought, surrounded by big guys in big paddings." I smirked at him.

"Have you been getting bothered by Brandon?" Sam asked. "I'm worried about him. He's not showed up to school in a while."

"Yeah, I haven't seen him in English either. Maybe he moved away or something like that. I can only hope." I said, keeping a mental thought about that as we went to our teachers.

I would admit though, getting hit in the face by a high speed tennis ball gave me a new perspective on the sport. The warm weather of the winter here in Florida gave us the ample opportunity to do more outdoor sports, like tennis and soccer. Yet, on this day we were doing another soft ball game. It seemed like the teachers loved to mix up PE lessons, especially now. Another Sophomore versus Junior soft ball game and from past experiences we Sophomores sucked at it. Considering that much of the football team was on the Junior side, it was a fact that not a lot of us Sophomores were very good at it.

"Come on, Vanessa, hit the ball!" Joe called out from the right field where he had parked himself.

"Shut up, Joe!" She yelled back at him.

Mr. Olsen was the pitcher, Ms. Taylor was the umpire behind the Junior catcher. I had an option, since I was up next after Vanessa, and I hoped I was doing the right option.

"Time out, Mr. Olsen!" I called, earning looks from everyone. "Time out!"

Vanessa gaped at me as I came up to her. "What are you doing?"

"Well the only way we can actually get a foot up around here is if we do this right. You need to hold the bat at shoulder level, stand square with the plate and follow through with your swings. You'll get a lot more leverage this way with your swings." I said taking the bat from her. "Do it this way, since we're both right handed."

"Why are you giving me tips? You think I'm stupid or something?"

"We're all stupid at something. But being that we lost twice to a the junior team, I would actually like to loose with some better scores this time." I said as I showed her how to swing through. "Try it this way, choke up on the bat a little and swing through when the ball is coming at you."

She took the bat from me and I stepped back, trying to get out of the way.

"And while you're at it, think of my head as the ball. If that gives you joy, think of it that way. Get your anger out on something other things than me." I added.

"Just watch this one, Annella." She countered, squaring up to the plate.

Mr. Olsen lobbed and underhand pitch at her, sending it over the plate. With one strike already she had two more chances of actually hitting the ball. And hit it she did. It sailed through the air to center field, making some of the out field people scramble to get it. As Vanessa rounded to second, our own running who had been on second came in towards home plate. The Juniors scrambled to get the ball back to home but it was not fast enough. With Vanessa safe on second, and the Sophomores finally getting a score in on the first round, I had high hopes.

"That's what we need, Sophomores." I said, heading to the plate. "A few more plays like that and we'll have these Juniors on the ropes."

"Not for long, if we have anything to say about it." Mike called out from his Second Base position.

"Then try to stop us. Batter up!" I called as I squared myself at the base.

* * *

There was no way we managed that. I was sure that it was no joke. We Sophomores actually did some good runs and base hits, we had the Juniors on the ropes. We gave the Juniors a run for their money.

I stood up at bat at the end of class, we had ten minutes left before we had to get back and prepare for lunch or for fourth period. It was the last play, I was the last chance with a tied game of five to five, with the Sophomores up to bat. This was my chance, this was my chance to make a win.

"You can do this, Annella." I urged myself angling so that I was standing in batting stance.

Mr. Olsen lobbed the ball at me. I swung too soon, I missed the ball. It landed with a thunk in the catcher's mit.

"Strike two!" Ms. Taylor yelled from behind me.

"Don't let us down, Annella. We need this win!" Vanessa yelled. "I'm not going let a foster kid ruin this one chance we have at beating my brother's team!" Two can play at this game.

All I had to do was hit this ball, think it was Vanessa's head and we would be the winners. She would have to run like hell because she was on third base and if I at least made a base hit, she would be able to get in a run to home.

The ball was thrown again, and I pivoted on my foot, swinging the bat.

WHOOSH, THUMP

"Strike three, you're out. And it stands, kids, you tied with each other." Ms. Taylor called out.

No, I lost. I lost again. I lost the game. Dropping the bat, I looked up at the sky. Puffy white clouds dotted the bright blue sky on this sunny day. It may have been raining, because that's how it felt to me. My mood darkened as if a storm was swarmed into the area.

"I can't believe it, you made us loose." Vanessa said, coming up to me. "Nice going."

"It's not like I didn't try." I responded.

And yet she was right, it felt like that. It felt like I had let my team down. Even though we didn't win, we didn't loose, but it still felt like we lost.

Joe jogged up to me with Mike and Sam. "Hey, tough luck, huh."

"There is no such thing as luck." I remarked as I picked up my dropped bat. "You either have the ability to play baseball or you don't. And it's obvious that I don't have it."

"Come on, don't be hard on yourself." Joe caught my elbow. "Even major baseball players strike out. Someone has to win and someone has to lose."

"I know that. But I got the team hyped up, I got them excited. We were so close and I screwed up."

Draping his arm over my shoulder, Joe leaned down. "Don't let my sister get to you. Now come on, I want to go to lunch. I'm hungry."

He was trying to cheer me up. This was okay, I guess at the time it was the only thing that did make me happy. Joe never put me down, if anything he tried to cheer me up.

"That was so close of a game." Sandy said as we were leaving the girls' locker room.

"I know. Hey, I'm surprised we could hustle like that."

"Your pep talk certainly helped. Though I think Vanessa was a bit rude. It wasn't your fault that the game ended the way it did."

"I know it wasn't, but I still feel bad we didn't squeak through with a win. I would have loved to win, but I guess I'm just not good enough at yet another thing."

"Stop putting yourself down, Annie." I heard Joe say as he approached with Mike and Sam.

I didn't have a chance to turn around, I felt Joe's arms wrap themselves around my neck, pressing his body against my backpack, resting his chin on top of my head. This just felt too strange for my liking.

"You're good enough for me. Now stop complaining. Hey Jess, come sit with us today." Joe called out to his date to the dance.

"Sure." The other sophomore responded sidling up to us. "I didn't think we would have that much fun today. You really did a great job getting us into it."

"Nothing like team spirit."

"That's why Mr. Olsen chose her as team manager. She can put up with us." Sam boast, ruffling my hair.

"Watch it, I'll break your finger if you do that again." I remarked shoving his hand away. "Oh, Joe, your mom is taking Myritza, Vanessa and me out for dress shopping for our Winter Dance dresses. When we get home from practice, we'll be heading out."

"That's good to hear. Hopefully you'll find something. I've already got my dress picked out." Jess said as we were making our way to the food line. I could smell tacos almost instantly.

Vanessa was back with the squad, and as expected Brandon Kellett was sitting with them. Ever since our tiff in the cafeteria not too long ago, Vanessa steered clear of me, Brandon and I were not talking anymore and I hadn't been with this family for a month yet. As the last day of school was that Friday, and the Dance was that night, there was a lot more talk about it. Talk about the nominations for Queen and King.

"Do you think Vanessa will win again?" Jess asked seeing where I was looking.

"I don't know, maybe." I answered.

"Please, after you called her and Brandon out last week during lunch, that's all people can talk about." Sandy said. "And let me tell you, now I know who my true friends are."

"Aw, thanks, Doll." Sam said, batting his eyelashes at her dramatically.

"I think she's right." Joe said. "My sister is not that sister I thought she was. I mean sure she was super popular because of our family name and her skill with cheerleading but since Annie came in, I saw how it was. She wasn't getting the attention she was."

"If you think it's my fault…" I started to say.

"It's not your fault. None of this is your fault, Annie." Joe interjected, putting down his milk carton. "None of this is your fault, Annie. Remember that. And no one is perfect. You, me, everyone here isn't perfect. You just have to stop being so hard on yourself."

"I'll try, but coming from where I've been, it's not an easy thing."

But I had my friends, I had my almost family so it wasn't hard to forget what I now had. I needed to stop living in the past and look towards the future.

* * *

**I hoped you liked this one. Okay, in my opinion I actually liked this one. And I promise you, the next chapter will be about dress shopping for the dance. Thanks for reading.**


	21. Chapter 21

It was beautiful. The dress, it was beautiful. After seeing it in a store, I knew that it had to be the dress for me.

"It's gorgeous." Joe's mother said as I stepped out of the dressing room. "Oh, Annie. It is absolutely gorgeous."

The dress was strapless. It had a silvery sparkle bodice and flowing light blue silk that went down to my ankles. As I stood in front of that mirror, I thought maybe I did have a chance to look good. I did have a chance to be beautiful for once.

"Wow." I breathed, looking at myself.

As spindly as I was, it created curves on my hips and in my bust was pushed up enough to give the illusion that I had something worth looking at. Even though I was not made up to look beautiful, just standing in the boutique shop I felt it, I felt beautiful.

"Man, you need to find some shoes to give you that lift to the look." Myritza said, glancing at Sandy. "What do you think?"

"Those silver peek-toe pumps, those would go good with the wintry look." Sandy responded. "Let me go get them."

I waited there, looking at myself in the mirror some more. Oh wow, it even gave the look of a proper butt, since mine would be considered flat.

"You look like a princess." Ms. Patricia said as she fussed with the silken fabric along my legs.

"She looks like Cinderella." A flat toned voice said coming out of the next fitting room.

Oh, yes, Vanessa.

She wore a burgundy dress that gave her skin tone a richer color. It looked great on her. Of course she could make anything look good on her. I wasn't as lucky. It took my six try ons to find my blue gown. The dress Vanessa was wearing was not like mine, it was straight and the curves that Vanessa had made it look well fitted against her body and the deep V collar showed off just enough of her chest to be considered covered.

"I don't like that, Vanessa. It shows too much on your chest."

"Mom, it's fine." She sidled up to me at the mirror. "Mind moving over, Annella? You're blocking the mirror."

I stepped aside, watching her as I did so. She had the perfect dress in a low budget boutique like this. It was good looking on her, it made her look even more grown up and not as a slut as she acted like sometimes. In the week or so, she had been cold to me. Since that day at school, when I called her out to be a bitch, when she tripped up that Dara girl, she had mostly ignored me. She had little to no dealings with me. That didn't mean she would say something a little cold to me. She seemed to take a step towards being civil with me before stepping back and being that bitch to me. Vanessa was doing her best to be good in front of her mother at that moment.

"I would like to get this dress, Ms. Patricia." I said looking down at myself.

"With these shoes, I think you would look even better." Myritza said coming back with a pair of silver shoes.

Great, high heels, just what I hated. But still, when I did try them on I grew a few inches taller and stood with a straight back.

"It's kind of funny," Sandy said looking between Vanessa and me. "You two look so regal."

"I think I know something that would work for you, Vanessa." I said looking at her.

"What?" She looked back at me sideways.

"Putting a Christmas flower in your hair. I mean, like in Hawaii where they wear flowers in their hair, it would pop with that dress, wouldn't it. And it would look Christmas themed."

She huffed, but didn't say anything for a moment. Vanessa looked at herself in the mirror, turned her head and then nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. And you still look like Cinderella."

At least that time she didn't make it sound like an offensive thing.

After figuring out what dress Myritza was going to wear, and then helping Sandy find her own golden gown for the dance, we girls headed out. And our budget dresses were within holiday centered theme. Myritza and Vanessa both had burgundy red gowns to go with their skin tones, and black heels to go with it. Ms. Patricia really did want us girls to have good outfits and Vanessa didn't complain that they were all under a hundred dollars.

"Are you going to come over today, Sandy?" Ms. Patricia asked as we headed out to the parking lot with our purchases.

"Actually I can't, I'm doing some last minute Christmas shopping for my family, and for Kevin."

"Christmas shopping, oh dear. I forgot about your girls' Christmas money." Ms. Patricia groaned as she opened the trunk to the car. "Listen, why don't I give you the money and I will send you off at the Mall. I'll take your dresses home and then send Joe out to get you."

Monday evening at a mall when there was about a week before Christmas? That was going to be a mad rush. And I was only sure of some things I could get for everyone. Not for the entire Anoa'i family, Myritza and Joe mainly because the rest were still slightly elusive to me. I knew they were very oriented with their Samoan heritage but that was about it that I knew.

"So, Myritza, Vanessa and Annie, I'm going to drop you off at the mall and then I want you to call home when you're ready to be picked up. Annie, I'm leaving you my cell phone so that you can get in contact with Vanessa and Myritza at the mall. When you're all done I want you to call your brother and get him to pick you up." Ms. Patricia said handing me her cell phone. "And you have to be home by ten tonight because you have school tomorrow."

"Yeah, Mom we understand." Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Can we just get over there before the place closes?"

"Sure, girls. Get in already." Ms. Patricia said.

* * *

The Mall was a scary place. It was a terrifying place the moment I stepped in it with Vanessa and Myrtiza. Summer lucked out, she was over at a friend's house for the evening. Joe was hanging around with a few of the football guys after practice, so it was just us girls that day. And shopping in a mall was an adventure in and of itself.

So first up on my list was something for Joe and maybe Myritza. But Joe mainly.

My mind flashed to that sea turtle on his dresser, the one that had a few chips out of it. Well there was that import store in the mall. Up on the second level, to the south side. That's where I knew the store was located. And instead of taking the escalators, I opted for window shopping walk. This way if I saw something someone else might like along the way, well then I could go in and look at it.

And my attention was drawn to a handbag I saw in a window of one boutique shop. Over 21, I think that was the name of the store. There was a thirty percent discount on handbags, and this one caught my attention. No it was not name brand. This bag would look good on Vanessa's arm. I went in and found the one in the window out on a rack, bought it for fifteen dollars. A steal. Who knew I would find something for the Ice Queen.

"Annie?" I heard a voice say. I turned at the voice, mildly shocked to see Dara there. She adjusted her glasses and looked at the bag on my arm. "Christmas shopping?" She asked.

"Yeah, after finding a Solstice gown for the dance tomorrow. Are you going?" I asked.

"No, I don't like dances. Why are you going?" She asked.

"I'm not sure. Well at first I wanted to go with Brandon but you saw how that turned out. But I found a better catch with Sketch. He's sweet, nice, and he's very thoughtful. Sketch thinks about others before himself. Also I was nominated at Winter Solstice Queen."

"Yeah?" She looked down at her bags. "You think I can meet someone just as thoughtful as Sketch?"

"Maybe. As for a dress, I'm not sure about fashion but if you really think about it you can pull off a look. Like, you and me have the same color hair, and white. Maybe something in blue for you. Hey, that rhymed." I laughed at my own corny joke. "Anyway, I am looking for gifts for the Anoa'i family."

"How is that working out for you, living with Vanessa?"

"It's a little interesting. Since that blow out she's started treating me, well I can't say nicer but it was like a slap in the face for her, I guess. She is decent with me at least. Sometimes it's good but others it's not really all that great."

I continued walking, Dara with me. She and I walked side by side, two of the shortest people in the mall.

"How do you spend Christmas?" I asked Dara as we neared the import store.

"With my grandparents. My parents aren't alive, so yeah. Grandpa and I go out and choose the Christmas tree together. It has to be tall, fluffy and round. It always has to be a perfect tree." She enunciated the word perfect with her hands. "Then I bake cookies with my Grandma. Unfortunately I don't have any siblings. I do have a few cousins and aunts and uncles that come by for Christmas dinner."

"When I got to the Anoa'i family it was on Thanksgiving."

"Was that fun?"

"It was loud. By the end of it I was called Little Cous, Little Cousin, by a lot of them. I ended up with some of the largest hugs in my life. They like you to tap out of their hugs."

"Isn't Joe related to The Rock?"

"Oh yeah, and let me tell you something. He was the one that taught me to tap out to his hugs the fast." I laughed as we stopped out in front of the import store.

The import store had a lot of figurines from different cultures. There was a lot of Asian things in there, like Buddha statues, Kwan Yin statues, Asian dragons and Fu Dogs. Then there were a lot of Native American, Egyptian and fantasy statues in there. Like traditional European dragons perched on skulls, and fairies and stuff like that. There were a lot of people in there, well less than ten but the store was small and full of breakables, that it felt like I was surrounded on all sides. Which I was.

"So, what were you going to get in here and for who?"

"I think I would like to get turtles for Joe and his parents. There is a lot of ocean themed things in their house, sea shells and whatnot, but Joe seems to have one statue that needs a face lift, it was old. Ah, here are the turtle statues over here." I said, pointing in one general direction.

There was a lot of turtles to choose from. Goofy looking cartoon like turtles, to more majesty and more expensive statues. One in particular stood out to me.

"Are you happy that you were nominated for Winter Queen?" Dara asked.

I had almost forgotten about that. It was during morning announcements that it was announced that both Vanessa and I were nominated as Winter Queen along with another girl, someone I didn't recognize. Of all the people nominated for Winter King, was Sketch, Joe and Brandon. Go figure how Brandon got nominated, maybe because he was the big cheese, as stinky of a personality that he was.

"Do you think Brandon will become Winter King?" I asked Dara.

"I'm not sure on that myself." She said. "He never gave me any notice."

"He only wants anything that could boost his popularity. I've been published in a newspaper, I will be published again and he would like nothing more than to have me on his arm."

"Can I admit something to you, Annie?" Dara asked of me.

"Sure, what?"

"I always thought you would fit in with the crowd that tormented me. But then you did what you did that day and I thought you were just being nice."

"You don't understand what it was like for me, Dara. Vanessa had it out for me when I got to her house. Her family accepted me, almost like their own kid. And she was jealous. She's getting better with it, sure but no one can change over night."

"So you were her target, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much." I picked up sea turtle statue and looked at the price. It was of two sea turtles swimming around a reef together, for fifteen dollars. Was I willing to spend that money on Joe?

"But you seem too good to be true. You're skinny, I'm just a lump all the way around." She motioned to herself.

"I'm not some Mary Sue, too good to be true. I have my faults, I have issues of trust. But I try, I try to be a good person because that's the kind of person I am. I just want to feel like my efforts are worth the try. Seeing you get bullied, because Vanessa needed someone to pick on, that was wrong and she needed to be put in her place."

"From what I hear, you did. It was like life sort of went back to normal after that."

"Well it mostly did. Brandon is still in my senior English class."

"Dude, that has to suck."

"Mr. Scott refuses to let Brandon talk to me during class. I can't talk to Brandon or the fact that Sketch is in the class with us and I can't talk to him. We can only talk if we answer questions from Mr. Scott. It's worked well since then."

"So he hasn't been bothering you?"

"No."

"Isn't that kind of odd?"

"I actually like it. No strange calls, no nothing regardless of the fact we share an English class."

"So what's Christmas going to be like for you?" She asked as I picked up a turtle statue and examined it.

I shrugged. "Much like Thanksgiving, I guess, which was a lot of people. I'm not afraid of people, I just hate crowds of them. And it was loud, really loud with a lot of hugging."

She laughed. "That just mean they really like you."

I weighed my options with Joe's gift. I decided to get the two turtles swimming together statue. It was more of a symbol with Joe and me together, as friends, as a family sort of. I would wait for gift ideas for Myritza and Summer, and Mr. Sika and Ms. Patricia later. I hadn't planned on getting a gift so soon for Vanessa, that's for sure.

I opted to buy what I had, until I saw something. I remembered Myritza saying she liked horses, that she used to go riding during the summer. I saw a beautiful horse statue within my price range that I knew she would like a lot. So I quickly bought that up as well.

"Maybe we'll see each other at school before the dance." I said as Dara and I neared the food court where Myritza, Vanessa and I were supposed to be meeting up with Joe.

"Yeah, maybe. I'm just a freshman, remember that." Dara responded.

After that she and I split ways, I went further into the food court to wait for Myritza and Vanessa so that way we could get home. I had hoped at that time I would be getting back to the house to finish up some of my other homework, especially math.

Yuck, math.

* * *

**I kind of didn't expect for this chapter to come about the way it did. I know there wasn't any Joe but I some how felt this needed to be a part of the story. So what did you guys think of this update? Comments are highly appreciated.**


	22. Chapter 22

This was it, the night of th big dance. Vanessa and Myritza were going to be dropped off by their dad, Sketch was going to drop by and bring me to the dance while Joe went and picked up Jess in his car. So much action in so much little time. And it was just as hectic before any of us walked out of the house.

"I don't know but something is missing." I said, looking at myself in the mirror of the bathroom.

To go with the feel of winter, Myritza was putting on a lot, or in my opinion, a lot of ice themed makeup. I mean she made it look like I had blue lips, shimmery blue lips. If she was as good as she was now, she might make for a good makeup artist on a movie set. I really did look like an ice princess.

My hair was twisted up into a bun, with a snowflake ornament that had been turned into a hair decoration. My neck was bare, it had no decoration on it, no necklace. I looked like I could be a frozen princess just waking up from a slumber.

"Wow." I looked behind me at Vanessa who was standing in the doorway to the bathroom. "You look really good, Annella."

"Thanks, your sister is good with the makeup. I could never pull this off on my own." I smiled slightly. "You did put a Christmas flower in your hair. You look good with it."

"Thanks, Annella." She smiled. "Can I get in to do my makeup now? Shouldn't Sketch be getting here to pick you up. I'm sure my parents want pictures of you two together."

That's right. Sketch was going to be there soon to take me to the dance and I had to be there.

Joe was walking out of his room when I was heading towards the bedroom I stayed in. We stood in that hall where all the rooms were located and we both looked at each other. After trimming himself up and pulling his hair into a tight bun at the nape of his neck, and the black suit he was wearing gave him a sex appeal. Sex appeal? All right, that was wrong on many counts. But still, he made my mouth water, and my knees shake as he looked down at me.

"You look great, Annie."

I smiled at him tightly. "Thanks, Myritza and Sandy picked out the shoes for me. Vanessa says I look like a darker blond version of Cinderella."

"You're by far more beautiful than Cinderella." He said. "Come here." Joe opened his arms to me.

Hugging Joe was something I could deal with. He liked hugs. His family liked hugs a lot. So when I did wrap my arms around his middle, Joe rubbed my back.

"I might not see you tonight." Joe said as he pulled back. "That's a hope you have a good time tonight, Annie." He smiled. "I have to go pick up Jess now."

"Okay. See you later." I said stepping to the side of him.

Joe was out of ear shot when I heard Vanessa say. "You and him would make such a cute couple, if you weren't like a sister to him."

I turned to look at her. "Huh?"

"You know what I mean. You've had your claws in him since you've gotten here. Just kiss him already and get it over with."

"Where do you get off trying to start things like this? I've already admitted to Joe that I have some sort of feelings for him but he also told me he didn't see me as anything more than a sister and a friend. So I've turned my attention to Sketch."

She huffed, looking me over. "Please, I know for a fact that my brother has feelings for you. But he won't go for it because of something he heard Mom and Dad talking about."

Now I was intrigued and curious about what her parents were discussing. "What?"

"I'm not telling you. Besides, I don't really know myself. Whatever it is, maybe that's why he won't go out with you." She shook her head. "I still think you look like Cinderella."

Now I wasn't sure if she was going to keep calling me Cinderella, but this time it sounded like she was being rude about it. Either way, I wasn't going to let her ruin this night for me. I just hoped it would turn out good in the end.

The doorbell rang like several minutes later as I was coming down the stairs. Before I could even get to the bottom of the stairs the door just opens. It was who was standing in the doorway that shocked me.

"Dwayne, Dany, what are you doing here?" I heard Mr. Sika ask as he was the one that came out of the kitchen.

"We came to see how Annie was doing." Dany replied as she held her daughter in her arms. "And there she is now. Look at her, Dwayne."

Oh he did. "Hot damn, girl, look at you. Since when can you pull off that look?" He asked as I managed to get to the bottom of the stairs.

"I, uh, did some changes while you were gone. What are you doing here?"

"I took some time off, I had an injury, well I'm playing off an injury. I wanted to spend some time with my girls. Come here and give me a damn hug." Dwayne said opening his arms to me.

I did, preparing for the worse actually.

"Dwayne, she's been nominated for Winter Queen, don't go manhandling her. She needs to look her best." Dany spoke up, slapping her husband in the arm with the back of her hand.

"I know, I know. It's all Sika can talk about any time he's on the phone with us."

I was happy to hug that tall man, who was about fifteen inches taller than me, even if I was wearing heels at that moment.

"You're as beautiful as a princess." Dwayne said.

"I uh, thanks, Dwayne." I said as I stepped back from him. "Vanessa was also nominated for the Queen, as was my friend Sandy Wilson. Sandy and I are great friends. If I don't win, I would like for her to get the spot."

"Why? What about Vanessa?" Dany asked.

"Well, Sandy and Vanessa are on the same cheerleading team, so they have the popularity advantage over me. Aside from being the team manager for Joe's football team and being a published teenager, I don't really have what it takes."

"Sure you do. You just need to see it for yourself. And stop putting yourself down. You will be great." Dany rubbed my bare shoulder. "You really do look lovely, Annella, and don't forget about that. Now, who are you going with?"

"A guy named Sketch, he's on the team and he's been nominated for Winter King." I answered. "Him, Joe and the former star of the football team are nominated for the King spot."

"Former?"

"He wasn't holding up his end of the bargain. He claimed he was the best football player, I think his dad is the mayor of this city and Brandon held himself higher than anyone else in the school. And then I knocked him down to size apparently. He was gunning for me, but I found out he just wanted to have the glory of being with me since I was sort of famous myself, you know." I shrugged.

"And now what?" Dwayne asked. "What's up with him now?"

"Even though he and I share the same Senior English class we don't speak to each other. He still sits around with the cheerleaders but that's about it. I still don't understand why he was nominated anyway. He's a big jerk."

At that moment the doorbell rang. Mr. Sika went to get it and standing in the doorway was none other than Sketch.

"Sketch," I said as I smiled at him. "How are you doing?"

He finally saw me as I stepped around Dwayne. Sketch's eyes widened, his mouth slightly opened, he nearly dropped the small box that was in his hands. Small box? What was that for? But Sketch himself looked really good in that three piece suit, black with a powdered blue dress shirt hidden underneath all that fabric. He was gorgeous, at least in my standards. His usually bushy wavy hair was slicked back and he wore a rose in his lapel on his coat.

"You look handsome, Sketch." I said, approaching him.

"You're are down right beautiful, Annie. Did you do your makeup yourself?"

"No, I had Myritza do it for me." I even heard her and Summer snickering from the top of the stairs. "I guess we should be going then."

"No you're not! I want pictures!" I heard Ms. Patricia yell as she came almost running down the stairs with a camera in hand.

Even though I didn't like having my picture taken, Ms. Patricia had the chance to get pictures of Sketch and me together, Sketch and Dwayne, both monster men. Dany, Simone and me were in one picture and then a few singles for me and Sketch. Just in case someone lost one or something like that. Ms. Patricia was thorough before Mr. Sika excused himself to see if Myritza and Vanessa were ready to leave.

All I wanted to do was get out of there. I wanted to get to the dance more than ever at that moment.

* * *

At the dance, well it was full swing when Sketch and I arrived. The dance was being held in the gym, the only place big enough for the likes of nearly the entire student body could fit.

"It's beautiful in here." I said as we entered the gym.

There was a throne sitting area where two large back chairs sat decorated like ice. There was a Christmas tree situation between the thrones but behind them. There were lights hanging around, some like icicles, snowflakes and the room was freezing.

Sketch shivered slightly. "They must have cranked up the air conditioning in here." He said looking down at me. "You have goosebumps on your shoulders." As he said that he ran a hand over my skin, making me shiver slightly.

"Yeah, it is cold in here." I shivered as well.

We were escorted to a table, where the nominated kings and queens were placed. Since Sketch and I were there as a couple, Joe was there also. But so was Sandy and Vanessa and Brandon came along soon there after. Vanessa sat next to Brandon, Sketch sat on the other side of him, putting me between Sketch and Joe with Sandy between Vanessa and Joe. The table was rounded, draped in a red cloth and a Christmas center piece was in the middle of it. As more and more students started showing up, I tapped my finger against the table.

"No one said we had to sit around doing nothing." I said suddenly, looking at the other nominees.

"Well it is how we do it here. We're the best of the best, some of us more than others. We need to be kept away from the normal students." Brandon said.

I turned my head and saw Myritza talking to a boy, one of the football guys I recognized as Curtis, something Curtis. Mark Curtis? Nah, well maybe. I recognized him as being apart of the football team, but he was not in my lunch that's for sure. Sam and Mike were there with Kevin, who had been Sandy's own date.

"Why don't you go over there and talk with Kevin, Sandy?" I asked, ignoring Brandon's prior statement.

"We have to stay here." Vanessa spoke up.

"Well, that's a bit boring for me. If we're supposed to be King and Queen, shouldn't proper royals be mingling with their subjects?" I asked. When no one objected, I scraped my chair backwards, standing up. "I'm going to go hang out with my friends. Dances are supposed to be about fun right? I'm not having fun if I'm sitting here all night like a darn statue."

No sooner had I said that, that Joe and Sketch and Sandy joined me. The only ones left at that table was Vanessa and Brandon. Sticks in the mud they were, I wanted to remember this as a magical night, a night where I could have fun and that I was surrounded by people that actually cared.

"Having fun?" I asked over the loud holiday music that was blaring from the DJ booth.

Myritza smiled, swaying along with Jack Curtis standing behind her. "Loads. I'm glad you decided to break the mold and have some fun." "That's all I really want right now. I want to have fun."

Dancing was never really one of my things but sort of bobbing and swaying in a large group where most of the football swarmed around us. I saw Joe and Jess dancing together sort of near the group but I felt Sketch reach over and grasp my hand in his.

"I never did tell you that you looked beautiful, Annie." He said.

"Actually you did, when you picked me up."

He rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous thing someone did when they realized that they were wrong about something. "Yeah, I did didn't I? I was a little shocked to see The Rock in your front room."

"I wasn't expecting it either. But hey, at least I got to see him before I got here." I rubbed the back of his hand. "Come on, I want to dance." I said as I tugged him towards the real dancing area.

I wanted to dance? What was I thinking? I didn't dance. I could sway, I could bob my head to the beat but I could not dance. If I couldn't dance normally then I couldn't dance in a ball gown. Holding onto Sketch's hand, and then his hand on my hip, and my other hand on his shoulder, we did something along the lines of a proper waltz, which surprised me. Maybe I had seen plenty of those old time romance movies that involved dancing.

Some kids were bumping and grinding together, something that the adult teachers had a hard time controlling. Even through the mass of people I could make out that Vanessa and Brandon were still sitting at the nominees' table, waiting for the crowning of the king and queen of the Winter Solstice Dance.

"Sketch!" Jess called out, tugging Joe over towards us. "Let's switch partners."

"I don't swing that way!" He laughed, getting grump face from Joe in return. "But I'll give you a twirl. Joe, watch out for Annie for me." "I'm not in any trouble, you know that right?" I asked as Joe placed my hand on his elbow.

"You're too precious to let go off. Just enjoy yourself, Joe's not a bad dancer." And like that, the football player and the other girl were off to another side of the dance floor where some of Jess's girlfriends were standing around in various of colors.

"She looks nice in that pink dress." I said, referencing Jess's own gown.

There was one upbeat music, good for bumping and grinding together but as Joe and I prepared to dance the song changed into something slow, something sensual and loving. I was sure that my hands were sweating as I looked up at Joe. He brought his arms around my hips, drawing me closer to his body.

"You're stiffening, Annie. Relax."

"Joe, I…"

"Shhh," he whispered tucking my head under his chin.

And swaying was the only thing I could manage to do. I swore I could hear Joe's heart under my ear. And like any movie I had seen where the protagonist and the love interest are dancing together, their surroundings disappear and it's just the two of them dancing together. That's how it felt for me, being with Joe. He was built like a rock, I could feel his muscles bunching at his neck where my fingers rested. And together we swayed, swaying together in a harmonious circle dance.

When that slow song ended, my little world dissolved as one of the student body representatives, the school president, walked up onto the stage where the thrones were.

"Okay, okay," the overly bubbly girl with frizzy red hair, said into her microphone. "It is time for the crowning of the Winter Solstice King and Queen. Now, where are the nominees. I see Brandon Kellett and Vanessa Anoa'i, I'm looking for her brother Joe, Sandy Wilson, Spencer Carlson and Annella Grange. Where are you guys. If you don't show yourselves then you forfeit your chance at winning the crown."

"We're right here!" I yelled, grabbing Joe's hand and tugging him towards the stages. "Come on guys, let us through." This time I was talking to the crowd that we were standing in the middle of.

This was the one chance of me winning over Vanessa for once. I was not going to let her beat me now. Joe and I made our way through the crowd, Sketch following close behind us with Kevin escorting Sandy towards the stage. When we got to where Vanessa was standing and where Brandon was as well, the student body president nodded.

"Having too much fun, huh?" She asked us.

"You know it." Joe and I chorused loud enough for just about everyone to hear.

"Okay, okay, everyone settle down." The President said. "Now right here I have the envelopes for King and Queen, the most requested from all of you tonight. And just to recap, our nominees are are Brandon Kellett, Vanessa Anoa'i, Spencer 'Sketch' Carlson, Joe Anoa'i and Annella Grange." She pointed each of us out. "So first up is our own Winter King!"

The tension in our little group could be tasted, at least that's how I could see it. I had hoped either Joe or Sketch had gotten the crown, they deserved it.

"And the Winter King is," she opened the envelope.

* * *

**Yay, cliffhanger. I will honestly say that this was one of the hardest chapters I had to write and I am still having trouble with writing the rest of the story.**

**Anyway, how did you guys like it?**


	23. Chapter 23

"Joe Anoa'i!" The class president said into her microphone.

Yes, I knew it. I knew he would get it. I clapped and cheered, along with the other student body in that gym. I probably had the biggest grin out of everyone there. We all were clapping and cheering for him as he walked up onto that stage to be crowned.

"And now without further delay next is the Winter Queen." The girl said, looking down at the group of nominees. "Cross your fingers and toes, this is who the entire student body has chosen for Winter Queen." She popped open the envelope and looked at the card inside. "Wow, this is amazing. Not what I had anticipated at all. But our 2002 Winter Solstice Queen is none other than…" Pause, one dramatic pause. "Annella Grange!"

There it was, the nicest name I had ever heard. And it was my name. I could tell by the reaction of the Student Body President that she had voted on Vanessa, because of the look I saw she give Joe's sister. If that wasn't prejudice then I didn't know what was, but at that moment I happily accepted the crown and the bouquet of flowers that were handed to me by another well dressed girl. There were pictures taken, there were people cheering and clapping for us. It was a beautiful moment, it was my magical moment.

And for once I felt beautiful.

"As tradition here at Pensacola Union High School, there is the Kiss Under the Mistletoe to seal the deal between King and Queen."

And my world stopped. I did not know that, I did not know that I had to kiss Joe.

Kiss Joe? But that was impossible, he didn't think of me that way. He said that he thought of me as a sister, more like a sister? But then what he had been doing during the dance, when we were dancing together flashed into my mind. Was that different. Was that, well was that his way of showing me that he cared for me? That he liked me more than just a sister?

Looking up at the Samoan teenager, I didn't know what what to do. Literally hanging directly above us was a rather large mistletoe. And if you were caught under a mistletoe, you have to kiss someone, or it will be bad luck. Not that I believed in luck myself.

"Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss," the students were chanting.

With his height he towered over me. I watched as Joe leaned down, making sure that his crown didn't fall off his head, and pressed a light kiss, my first kiss to my mouth. I didn't know what to do, I just pressed back into his kiss and hoped that it was okay. I may have been smart but I'll tell you now, I was pretty dumb when it came to kissing.

Before I had a chance to realize what was going on, Joe pulled back and smiled at me. The glitter from my lipstick stuck to his lips, making them shine under the light.

"And now it's time to officially start the dance with the King and Queen taking the first dance on the dance floor." The bubbly girl announced.

I handed off my bouquet of flowers off to Sandy, earning an appreciated smile. Sketch patted Joe on the back as we passed by the other nominated kings and queens. Brandon and Vanessa were not as enthused as the rest of the dance participants.

The DJ played a slow song, and the waltz that I shared with Sketch became the focal point of the dance with Joe. But to dance with loads of people watching, that was a little nerve wracking. Yet, I could focus on Joe, with him smiling at me, and me paying no mind to what was going on around us. Just like before, I could zone out and be at piece.

Step, step, slide. Step, step, slide. That's what all we did to the Christmas Waltz tune, a step step, slide.

"You're doing wonderful, Annie." Joe said, twisting as It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year came on.

**_It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year With the kids jingle belling And everyone telling you "Be of good cheer" _**

**_It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year It's the hap -happiest season of all With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings When friends come to call It's the hap - happiest season of all_**

**_There'll be parties for hosting Marshmallows for toasting And caroling out in the snow There'll be scary ghost stories And tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago_**

**_It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year There'll be much mistltoeing And hearts will be glowing When love ones are near It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year_**

**_There'll be parties for hosting Marshmallows for toasting And caroling out in the snow There'll be scary ghost stories And tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago_**

**_It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year There'll be much mistltoeing And hearts will be glowing When love ones are near_**

**_It's The Most Wonderful Time It's The Most Wonderful Time It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year_**

I smiled at Joe. "Thanks. It's about the only thing that I do know how to do. A lot of dancing movies to watch."

"Any of them dirty?"

"Sure, but then again I never had a dance partner to enjoy them with."

Were we just flirting with each other? I mean, Joe told me before that he didn't think of me like a girlfriend. He said he didn't have feelings for me. So was he just being nice or was he flirting? Maybe there was some truth to what Vanessa told me earlier in the night, about what Joe overheard his parents talking about. But what was it?

"All right, everyone, let's get this party started!" The president announced, causing the noise level to sky rocket through the roof.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, causing me to turn around. My good time ended with the redhead known as Brandon Kellett standing there, looking between Joe and me. Just to his side and standing with the rest of the football team was Sketch, I could just make out the a look of pure hatred, well dislike would be suffice. The way his nose scrunched when he wasn't pleased with the fact that Brandon still had a hand on my shoulder was enough for me to take notice.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

"I would like one last dance with you."

"Last dance? Was there ever a first?" I asked, turning my back on Joe.

"We've been dancing around each other since you've gotten to Union. I think it's about time I show you how much I've changed."

Before Joe could voice his opinion, I held my hand up. "It's okay, Joe. Just one dance, Brandon. If you even think about putting your hands on me in a suggestive manner, the team will rip your ass apart." I told him.

"I promise, I'll keep my hands where they should be." He responded, holding his elbow out to me.

Let's just get this over with.

* * *

When Brandon and I got to the center of the dance floor, amongst other merry making dancers, I turned towards Brandon.

I hold out my hand to him, but with force instead of drawing me towards his body with his hand in mine, he cupped my hip and drew me towards him.

"You're treading on thin ice right now, Brandon." I said placing my hands on his shoulders.

"I'm going to show you that I'm better than Joe." His voice dipped slightly, almost menacing like.

My mouth went dry. I knew it, I knew he would be this asshole that I figured him to be. Well it was my fault for believing the best in people.

"I hear it's your birthday the day after Christmas." Brandon said swaying with me, a couple on each side of us were even keeping tabs on him.

"Yes, I'll be sixteen by then."

The twinkling of the Christmas lights made me feel light headed as he twirled me around by the hand before drawing me back to him. Shaking my head at the dizziness, I looked back up at Brandon who was smiling at me.

"Feeling okay?"

"My feet hurt, and these lights are making my head spin more if you spin me around. Please don't do that." I said.

"What, this?" He stepped back, took my hand and made me spin around.

That light headed feeling went to my ankle, where I twisted it, falling to the floor screaming in agony. People backed up away from the rage that Joe exhibited.

"You fucking jackass!" The Samoan roared, almost appearing out of nowhere behind me.

And then it was like I had a wall of bodies behind me. Someone took a picture, I'm sure, because I was on the floor, Sandy leaning next to me, Myrtiza trying to get my elbow in her hands and I was in agony. First my eye and now my ankle. Maybe I was a klutz.

"You've had your chances, you screwed that up." Sketch said, leaning down and helping Myritza and Sandy get me to my feet.

I tried putting my weight on my foot, but I couldn't. My ankle throbbed, beating as fast as my heart was. I latched onto Sketch's tux jacket, crying slightly. Great, now my makeup was going to run.

"I need to get back to the house." I said knowing that Ms. Patricia would fix it. There was no nurse at the school at the dance, and I highly doubt that my ankle was broken so going to the ER was out of the question.

"You're not good enough for her." Brandon taunted Joe, ignoring me all the same.

"What's going on?" Principle Danna Williams asked approaching the large gathering of kids. She practically had to swim through flourishes of colors and tuxes just to get to me. "What happened? Someone better tell me or…Annie, what happened?"

"I was dancing and I twisted my ankle." I answered as I hung onto Sketch.

"That's not what it looks like." She motioned to Joe and Brandon. "I want to know what's the problem between you two. I want answers right now."

"He twirled me when I told him not to. Brandon, that's who. Joe's standing up for me. Sketch, sorry Spencer, is holding me up."

"Is this true, Brandon?" Our principle asked.

"No." He answered quickly.

I glared at him the best that I could. But then I heard someone speak up.

"She was probably just a klutz, like usual." Vanessa added, walking into the fray as if she owned it. "She's just not used to those heels."

"I don't think I was talking to you, Ms. Anoa'i." Principle Williams turned a stern eye to Joe's sister. "Do you want me to call 9- 1- 1?"

"No, no. I think I'm calling it a night though. I can't stand up on my own as you can see."

"I'll take you home." Joe said, turning his attention back to me.

"Joe…" Jess reached out for his arm.

"I have to, Jess." He jerked from her.

"No, Sketch can. He's my date after all. He's also the one sort of holding me up. And don't even think about coming along, Myritza. You shouldn't have to give up on a fun night like this for me. Have fun, and go." I motioned for her to leave. "Go have some holiday fun. Dance until your feet hurt for me."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Come on, Sketch, let's get out of here." Maybe some quiet will do me some good. I knew for a fact I was going to have an issue with a headache later on.

So hobbling part way across the gym, all festive and beautiful Sketch gave an exaggerated sigh. He stooped down, tucked his right arm under my knees and then he lifted me up as if I was nothing.

"Sketch!" I yelped, not from the pain but from the pure shock of him doing that.

"I don't do this just for anyone." He said smiling as someone held a door open for us.

I could only just roll my eyes as we exited the school building to where Sketch had parked. We were being followed, though. Joe, Jess, Myritza, Sandy, Kevin, and just about the rest of the football followed suit behind us. Like a parade, they followed us out of the gym, out of the school and towards the parking lot where Sketch's jeep was parked in one of the spots closest to the school building. The only noises that night were the music coming from within the school, which was saying something of the noise level that had been going on in there. No wonder why it sounded like I could hear a pin drop when we were outside.

"Let me get the door." Joe said.

"Joe," I started to say.

"Shut up, Annie. Just let someone do something for you for once." Myritza said as she fell in step beside Sketch.

Joe opened the door for Sketch, so that the offensive tackler could sit me down in front passenger seat. Well, so far so good. A quick glanced down at my right ankle and I saw the large purple bruise starting to show up. I loose one bruise, the one that covered my eye, and now gained one that was on my ankle. Go figure. At least with this one I could walk around with it covered. My face was ugly enough without a black eye making me look even worse.

"Make sure you wrap that and ice it when you get back home." Joe said as he leaned into the open window of the jeep.

"Yes, Daddy." I said that just to piss him off. "I know how to take care of myself, Joe. This wouldn't be the first time I've had something go wrong with my body. But promise me you won't start a fight, you will have fun with your date and please, for the love of anything and someone, just enjoy yourself. You need it."

"So do you, Annie."

"Maybe when I get up on my feet you and me can do something fun together." I patted his hand as Sketch slipped into the driver's side seat. "Remember, I want you guys to have some fun tonight."

"Don't worry, we will." Jess said, coming up to Joe's side. "Come on, you promised me that dance."

Glancing at her and then at me, Joe sighed. "Fine, but you better lay off that ankle until you're better. I know your hard head, Annella. I don't want you screwing it up worse."

"I'll be fine. Your mother can patch me up like new. Now step back from the jeep so that we can leave." I said, pushing him back from the door.

Finally, Sketch and I drove off.

One little fact remained.

The Royally awkward kiss Joe and I shared.

And what exactly did that mean for us?

* * *

**Dec. 25th: Well Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you enjoyed this little gift from me. I hope you liked it.**


	24. Chapter 24

Twas the night before Christmas, I'm sure you're wondering by now. Since the dance I'm telling you it was a stuffy one for everyone. Vanessa came back from that dance pissed off at me. I had won her coveted crown. Myritza had the fun I sort of had earlier in the night. I could count on my finger the many times I had been asked if I was okay by Joe. He and I were dancing around one little fact.

That mistletoe kiss was breathtaking.

While everyone else was all snug in their bed, I wasn't, I was downstairs instead. I was at the family computer, typing out a thought, I had a scratch piece of paper sitting next to me, my notes and things scribbled on it. Since I had been bed ridden for the previous few days, walking on a severely sprained ankle was hard. At that point it still throbbed but it seemed like the only thing that got my mind off of it was writing.

Ms. Trent said that she had a Christmas surprise for me, one that she was even surprised for herself. But sleep was eluding me and I couldn't think of anything except for writing.

_The truth is just as strange as the fiction. By all means, love comes in all shapes and packages, it's just how do you fall in love with a werewolf? _

I stopped writing. How do you fall in love with a werewolf? Don't they change into savage beasts once a month full moon? Fantasy, here I was trying to figure out what to do and I was taking the obvious way out. I needed more depth, I needed more controversy.

What I needed was a drink.

Easing myself up from the chair, I groaned at the strain I was putting on my ankle.

"Annie?" I heard Joe say.

I nearly whirled around in fright, not expecting to see him up or on the stairs. I had to grab the couch to keep myself from falling over.

"Joe, what are you doing up?" I asked, sitting down on the arm of the couch to rub my tinder ankle.

"I couldn't sleep. What are you doing up?"

"Waiting on Santa, what does it look like?" I asked. "I'm trying to write something I've never written before."

He walked down the rest of the way on the stairs. "Are you okay, how's the ankle?"

"It's fine," I answered twirling it around slightly. "I was going to get something to drink before I went back to writing."

"What are you writing?"

"I'm dipping my hand into fantasy fiction, trying to at least."

"Yeah, how's that going?" He asked sitting on the couch.

"Not really right now, I just started. I don't even have any characters in place, or any background information or setting or anything like that."

"So why write anything if you don't have an idea of what you're going to write?" Joe pondered as I sat down on the couch next to him.

"Because it's something I have to do." I answered. "I mean after all the work I did with Perry's Holiday Wish, well it was something that I had to do. And the fact remained, at least to me, I had to write a fantasy story. Something I don't ever really do a lot of."

"What is it about?"

"It's kind of the same thing as a mixed racial relationship, but using werewolves and humans. At least that's the thought right now."

"You know what, I want to go out to the beach. We haven't done that in a while. Let me go get dressed and then we can head out." Joe said. "I'm not taking no for an answer, Annie."

The beach, I hadn't been out there in a long while. I hadn't been there with Joe in a long time. With it being the night before Christmas, the rule was to stay in the house. But with the holiday being in the morning, and Santa on his way, Mr. Sika had insisted that we don't leave our rooms. Well it appeared that Santa had come and left us our gifts, but I wasn't interested in presents.

"Have you wrapped your gifts yet?" Joe asked as he held the door open for me.

"I did that up in the room, when I was on bed rest. I kind of felt sorry for Myritza who got the blunt end of my rage when she walked in without knocking." I said smiling slightly. "Okay, maybe not. She was trying to purposefully sneak in on her gift."

"What did you get her?" Joe asked as we headed across the backyard towards the back gate.

"Oh, no. You'll have to wait until she opens it this morning."

The Anoa'i family had put up the Christmas lights late this year. Mr. Sika and Joe had spent an entire evening the day after the dance putting up the lights and then two days later the tree finally went up.

"Vanessa said it was my fault that you guys got a late start on the decorating this year." I said as we hit the beach.

"I won't hesitate to say yes, you arriving did put a stop on our normal routines, but that's fine. Now I think there was no better time. You did great with the tree decorating."

"Even if I had to sit on the floor?"

"That was probably the best thing." He smiled as we came to the water's edge.

Water lapped at our ankles, soothing the ache that was in mine. I felt the ease of the strain lifting almost instantly. I couldn't stop the sigh from escaping my mouth as I looked over the darkened ocean.

"The lights from the houses are shining on the water." Joe told me.

"And it's colder tonight."

"It's always colder at night, no matter if we're in the seventies during the day."

"Are we dancing around the obvious, Joe?" I asked suddenly. I wanted to know the truth and I wanted to know it right at that moment.

"What do you mean?"

"You and I have been stepping lightly around each other since the dance." I looked up at him. Though I could only just make out his shadowed face. "I have been trying to figure out what's going on between us. I know we agreed that you didn't have feelings for me. I've been trying to be with Sketch, to have feelings for him and that worked out well enough."

"But it didn't last."

"Not until the dance, no. When we were made to kiss under that mistletoe, it felt different."

"You felt the spark, didn't you? When two people are meant to be together you felt that spark." He rolled his eyes.

"Actually, it felt warm. I don't know why they call it a spark, electrical shocks hurt. It felt good, the kiss felt right somehow. It didn't hurt, but it left me wondering something."

"What's that?"

"Did I do okay? Was it a good kiss?"

Joe turned back to the ocean. "Yeah, it was one of the better ones. It's just,"

"Just what, Joe?"

"I heard my parents talking about adopting you not too long ago. It was around the time that admitted you had feelings for me. I started liking you too, but then we would be a brother and sister. That would be wrong on so many levels."

I didn't have any words to say. I couldn't. Joe's parents wanted to adopt me? Well that put a damper on things.

"Ms. Trent is coming over after we open presents to give me an early birthday present." I suddenly said, trying to change the subject.

"Wonder what that's about." Joe said as he pushed his hair behind his ear.

"I don't know. I'm not going to worry about it. She said it was important. Maybe your parents finally put in the paperwork or something like that."

"You're already pretty much a sister to my sisters. With an exception to Vanessa, Summer and Myritza are really fond of you."

"It took Summer a long time to come around. I mean she is nicer to me."

"I think she was mad at you because Vanessa was. Summer looks up to Vanessa, because next year Summer will be in high school with the rest of us."

"Speaking of us, I thought your brother was going to be here for Christmas." I took a few more steps out into the water, getting up to my knees in the water.

"He was, but there was a massive snow storm that hit Cincinnati. He won't be here this year. Now it sucks that he won't get to meet you."

I bit my lip as I looked back at the moon that was a crescent and as it hung over the ocean I saw the reflexion moving in the water. It was quiet and calm out there in the water. To think of all those animals swimming around. Turtles, sharks, whales, dolphins and seals, all the fish and everything out there. And they didn't have to worry about feeling wanted in a family. They were happy with the ones they were given. But the family I wanted to be a part of was confusing.

Would they be the family I wanted for Christmas?

* * *

I awake to a clatter in the room.

"It's Christmas, Annie!" Myritza yelled near my head. "Come on, get up."

I had only a few hours of sleep. After Joe and I decided to come back to the house after our talk, I went back to writing and around five in the morning I had decided to go back to bed. I would sleep soundly later, maybe.

Tradition dictated in the family that no one comes downstairs on Christmas until like six in the morning. Glancing at the alarm clock next to the bed, it read 6:02 am. This way no one sneaks into their stockings, there was an incident with that when Joe's brother Matt was younger. And now, well it was odd because I only had about three hours of sleep.

"Can you wake up Joe?" She asked, bouncing on the edge of my bed.

I sat up, yawning and stretching my hands over my head. "If you promise to get Vanessa and Summer up." I responded.

"Deal." Then like that she bounded out of the room.

I yawned again before heading out into the main hall. Mr. Sika and Ms. Patricia were trudging out of their master bedroom, just at the top of the stairs when I was heading over to Joe's room.

"You know you are supposed to be inside at ten, Annella." Mr. Sika said crossing his arms and looking down at me.

Uh oh, I was in trouble.

"Um…I couldn't sleep." I answered swiftly seeing Vanessa walk out of the room she and Summer were sharing.

"It's Christmas, Leati." Ms. Patricia said. "Just let it go this one time. She was out with Joe. You know that he would never let anything happen to her."

"If it happens again you will be grounded. This is your warning." Mr. Sika said before turning away and heading down the stairs.

Joe was still asleep when I got to his room. Hmm, maybe a pillow to the head would work.

"Don't even think about it." I heard Joe mumble as he lifted his head to look at me. "Why are you up this early?"

"Because Myritza got me up. Also your dad knows about us being outside after dark last night." I said before suppressing another yawn. "Everyone's up, time to open presents." I turned and started opening his door. "Merry Christmas, Joe."

"Merry Christmas, Annie." He replied smiling at me.

"Get dressed." I added before running away from a pillow.

Downstairs, Ms. Patricia was nursing a cup of coffee. Myritza was bouncing around, anticipating digging into the gifts that were underneath the tree. I sat down on a chair away from everyone. Really, in the past I have had times where I would sit in with the family I was staying with and not get anything. I was half expecting to see nothing with my name under that tree. When Joe came down he went to the tree and picked up one particular small wrapped box.

"I want to do something different this Christmas." Joe said, which caused everyone else to look at him like he had grown two heads. "I know we start with the youngest, Dad, but I want to prove that Annie is thought of in this family."

"I agree." Ms. Patricia said.

I bit my lip as Joe walked up to me, holding out a small wrapped gift in silver reflective and decorative Christmas paper. When I unwrapped it, there was a necklace in there. It was an abalone shell necklace on a black cord. The abalone shell was in the shape of a turtle, the outline was made of sterling silver metal. It was absolutely gorgeous.

"This is because you are part of the family now." Joe said, looking down at me.

"Thank you, Joe. Oh goodness, thank you so much." I wrapped my arms around him in a hug. "Thank you so much." I mumbled into his shirt.

He hugged me back. Finally it felt right.

"Okay, who get their next present. Summer, right?" I asked, stepping back from Joe.

We fell into opening up gifts. Joe's cousins, even Dwayne would be there later in the day. That meant I was going to see Solofa again. And the twins, I couldn't forget about the twins.

"This is to Vanessa from Annie." Ms. Sika said holding up the box that contained my gift to the teenager.

"You got me something?"

"Yeah, why? Does that sound like a far fetched thing to you?"

"Well, I haven't been very nice to you." She replied taking the gift from her father.

I shrugged half hazardly. "Well, everyone needs a gift on Christmas morning. Regardless of the fact that you and I may not see eye to eye, well when I saw that item, I knew you would look great in it. I saved the receipt if you want to take it back though." I said as she opened her gift.

"Oh wow." She took the purse out. "It's cool, I mean it's really thoughtful. But it's not the brand I wanted."

Oh well, it was the thought that counts. I proved to her that I was civil enough to get her something.

"Vanessa," Mr. Sika gave that tone in his voice which showed that he wasn't pleased with her words. "It was a good gesture, Annie. It's beautiful. Now, well this one." He picked up another box. "To Joe from Annie."

Joe looked at me briefly before taking the smallish box from his dad. When he and the rest of them saw the two sea turtles in that statue, his head snapped up to look at me.

"It sort of symbolizes your heritage. The two turtles are the bond you and I share." I stated. "Plus the statue that you have now is sort of old, so I thought it would be a good new addition for your dresser."

"Thank you, Anne. This is really beautiful." He ran his thumb over one of the turtle's shells.

"Now it's, To Annie from Mom and Dad." Mr. Sika said as he handed me the next gift.

This gift, it was fairly heavy. And it was a relatively big. When I got the wrapping off I nearly dropped it. Staring at me was a laptop. A brand new laptop, just like the one that Vanessa had destroyed.

"This way you can go anywhere with the laptop and type to your heart's content." Ms. Patricia said, smiling at me. "I know how much writing means to you."

"It means a lot to me. Thank you both."

Vanessa hadn't gotten me a gift, which I was sure she wouldn't at that point. Summer had heard about my love for wanting to write a fantasy novel so she had found a book on how to write fantasy novels, which would be useful for my endeavors. Myritza got me a pack of writing notebooks, journals, those composition notebooks and some mechanical pencils, the only type of pencil I used to write anything.

"And the last thing from us to you, Annie, is…" Mr. Sika started to say, holding out an envelope to me.

Just then the doorbell rang. At first I thought it was Dwayne and Dany coming by. The gathering wouldn't be until after we unwrapped presents. I was excited to see everyone again. But what I wasn't really anticipating to see was Ms. Trent there. And she wasn't alone.

"Kimberly, what brings you by this early in the morning?" Mr. Sika asked.

"I'm sorry, I know I said I was going to come by later but I couldn't wait any longer. Where's Annie?"

"I'm right here, Ms. Trent." I said walking up to Mr. Sika at the door.

There was another woman there, she had darkish blond hair, and big blue eyes. She didn't dress to impress, she kind of dressed like me. Being that she was around Ms. Patricia's age, she looked like she had been through the ringer a few times. I could understand that feeling. And when she looked at me I could have sworn I saw her pale.

"Annie, I would like you to meet Sarah Grange." Ms. Trent said motioning to the woman. "This is your mother."

My mother?

* * *

**Well, I managed to get to the Christmas day part. I hoped you enjoyed this update. Thanks for reading.**


	25. Chapter 25

"I know I've done you wrong, Annella." This woman said.

This woman, this woman who claimed to be my mother. I stared at her, my mouth slightly open and shocked that she would be there at all. Didn't she abandon me when I was like two or something?

"Annie, would you like to come outside and meet your mother?" Ms. Trent asked.

"Not really, no." I said, standing my ground and crossing my arms.

"Come on into the kitchen, I've got some coffee on the pot ready." Ms. Patricia answered.

Sarah Grange looked every bit like me. Same not so impressive hair, same blue eyes. She even had the same height even. She even dressed like me. While she drank the offered coffee with haste, I heard snickering from behind me.

"I guess the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, huh?" Vanessa said.

"Why don't you learn to grow the fuck up for once in your life and stay the hell out of mine." I spoke up, which caused everyone to look at me. "I'm sick and tired of you, Vanessa. You may hate me but in reality you hate the fact that I've gotten appreciated for everything that I have done. But for once in your sorry pathetic life, shut the fuck up."

I couldn't believe I had just blown up in front of Joe's parents, in front of Ms. Trent and this strange woman. I had enough of her, I had enough of her putting me down, I had enough of life at that moment. I didn't need her talking bad about someone even she didn't know.

"Go girl." I heard Myritza mumble.

"You three, get out of here." Mr. Sika ordered while pointing to Vanessa, Myritza and Summer.

"But what about Joseph?" Vanessa whined.

"Don't worry about your brother. Take your gifts up to your rooms and stay there." Their mother added.

That just left Joe and me in the kitchen with his parents, Ms. Trent and a woman I had no idea was my mother until just then.

"Annie," Sarah started to say.

"Only those that I care about can call me Annie. You don't really have that right at this moment." I responded quickly and sharply.

"You're right, I don't." She quickly responded glancing at her cup of coffee. "It's been a long time, I know, Annella. I can't begin to tell you all that has been going on in my life, what I went through, what I had to put you through."

"You're right. You don't know." I answered just as coldly. "What do you want, what do you expect by coming here right now?"

A pause, a lapse in the conversation followed my question. She was trying to think of a reasonable answer for that. I would too if I were in her shoes.

"Because I think I'm ready to be a mom again."

There it was. There was the kicker to a the football if I ever did see one. She wanted to take me away, take me away from one of the few families that actually gave a damn about me. And I didn't want to go. Sure I had feelings for Joe but if she was anything like what I had been told about in the past, I didn't want anything to do with this woman.

"I have an apartment, in a good neighborhood, I have a job, everything is all set for you to come back home." "Home is where family is. I don't really have that with you. Sure you and I share half of the same DNA, but lets face it, you abandoned me."

"Because I was high out of my mind." She raised her voice, I wasn't sure if it was from me drilling her or what but she was getting fed up. "I wanted that high just for a little bit. I wanted to feel better, about myself, about my life. Nothing else matter as long as I had my fix and that was it. The smartest thing for me to do was give you up and I did. Who knows what would have happened to you if I didn't. I wasn't ready to be a mother. I was barely eighteen. I got pregnant with you on a binge with Heroin. I'm surprised you turned out the way you have now."

"Yeah, why is that?" I asked.

"Because I still did drugs, while I was pregnant with you. I was not the best mother, I was probably the worst when I actively did drugs while I was pregnant." She set her cup down. "But look at you. You turned into something more than what I could have imagined for you. And when you and I go home…"

"No." I answered, cutting into her heart felt tirade. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

"But…" Sarah started to say.

"You may say you're a better mother, yeah maybe you kicked the habit but you released yourself of your burden when I was two. You have not rights to be a mother to me. You gave that up too late." I headed towards the one place that I would feel safe. "You think this is going to make everything better, Ms. Trent, well you thought wrong. This is not going to fix the years of abuse, the years of molestation that I had to go through because some woman did not want to be a mother to me. I'm not going anywhere with anyone." And like that I left.

I left them, I left the troubles that I had. I just left. Where I weas going, I wasn't too sure. All I knew was that I had to go somewhere, leave and just cool off. If I decided to come back that was on me. No one was going to stop me.

"What do you want?" I asked, noticing the footfalls coming up behind me. There was no mistaking Joe's presence, which was larger than any other that I had ever felt before.

"I'm following you. Don't want you to drown yourself."

"If I was anything like that woman I would find the nearest fix to drown myself in." I responded kicking off my shoes and stepping into the sandy beach.

"But you're not. You've got better qualities than that." Joe said following me out on the beach.

He was right. That's why I simply stood there on the beach staring out into the ocean.

"With all the screwed up stuff and the screwed up things I've been going through with Vanessa, I don't want to leave. No matter how much she wants me to leave, she can't make me."

"I know. I know you don't want to, Annie. And it's okay to feel this way. I've lived my life with a great family, you haven't. And once you found a place that felt like home, it's hard to give it up. Right?"

"Yeah." I sighed, looking back up at him. "I'll miss you and Myritza the most, surely Summer will understand, but Vanessa. Hell knows she'd wish me dead."

"She doesn't. But she has to learn that nothing revolves around her ass all the time."

I wiped the drop of water forming at the corner of my eye. Was it possible to miss the girl that was giving me hell also.

"Come on, let's go back home."

"It's your home, Joe." I couldn't move or step away from the oncoming surge of the ocean tide that wrapped itself around my ankles. If they pulled hard enough I'm sure they would drown me. And I wasn't going to stop them for that. "It's not mine."

"Of course it's your home, Annie. It's as much your home and your family as it is mine. What makes you think otherwise?"

"Vanessa for starters but, I think Sarah has all rights to get me back. If she really did clean up her life that is."

"And it's not like we wouldn't be seeing each other. I mean, you'll still be living in Florida. When you get your license, you can come by any time and get to see us."

If it were that easy.

* * *

"San Francisco?" Jonathan Fatu asked as he and his brother Joshua sat with me and Joe in the backyard.

"Yeah, San Francisco, California. That's where she lives. She lives near my maternal grandmother in a two bedroom apartment. Apparently she'd been planning this since I was thirteen, being clean and getting on with her life as normal as she could."

"Why did she let you go in the first place?" Joshua asked.

"She hasn't explained that in detail. I think it was because of her drug stuff and how it was effecting me. I'm surprised I wasn't born with that infant addiction, she was doing drugs while she was pregnant with me."

"Shit." Twin One mumbled as he spooned around his mashed potatoes. "But look at it this way, you're stuck with us two. We're going back to San Fran soon with our family." Jonathan laughed.

I merely shrugged. Sure it would be good to have some familiar faces around but come on, it was a large city. I wouldn't be in the same neighborhood as theirs. We probably wouldn't be in the same school. I would be doing my own thing and they would theirs.

"I'm sure you can get to come back here." Joe spoke up.

"I don't know." I stabbed at my turkey meet. The smell of pork wafting through the air mingled with the traditional Christmas dinner that was going on.

Much like Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner was just as large and as delicious as the former family holiday had been. Solofa Fatu was laden down with foot on his plate, well most of everyone sure did have food up to their ears, in Dwayne's case at least. Joe was going to be working that meal off no doubt about that.

This time I at least tried to look good. Mixing and matching my wardrobe of the good cloths that I had gotten earlier and this time I was a lot more sociable this time around with Joe's extended family. And they were more receptive of me also.

"I don't know what will happen. Not that I want to let this family go, but there is the fact that Sarah gave up her parental rights on her terms. She has every right to get me back. And she already signed the papers. I leave at the beginning of the year so that I can get put into a new school. Just when I got used to this school, too."

"You know, maybe this will give you a chance to renew the family that you never had. With your mom." Myritza said speaking up for the rest of them. "It's not that we don't want you in this family, it's that maybe this isn't the family you need."

"But I want this family. You guys made life bearable for me. I mean besides Vanessa's odd behavior, I haven't felt this accepted into a family in ages. There have been a few that have tried to make me feel welcome but you guys just made me feel like I was apart of the family from the start."

"It took Summer a while to warm up to her." Myritza told her cousins. "But even she has been more accepting of Annie than Vanessa has."

It was going to be hard to leave the Anoa'i family. Would I see them again? It was hard to say. By the way Ms. Patricia was talking to Sarah, my birth mother over with some of the other mothers in the family, she was being accepted, no that was just not right to say. I think Joe's parents were being nice and considerate by inviting her to stay for the Christmas feast. But, there was still something, something that maybe I was not looking into. Maybe she did care about me, Sarah, my mother. Maybe she did actually want to get clean and sober so that she could live to see me one day.

But where did that leave me, where did that leave me with the Anoa'i family. Would I still be with them through out this time while I would be in San Francisco and Joe and his family were back in Florida?

"At least I got my wish." I finally said.

"Yeah, and what's that?" Joshua asked before spooning the lumping goodness that was called mashed potatoes into his mouth.

"Well, I at least got a family for Christmas, regardless of the fact that it was only for a little while, I still felt like I was apart of the family. I felt like I was welcomed here, for the most part and at school. I just wanted to feel loved, accepted unlike so many time before."

"And you'll still have a place with us, Annie." Joe reached around his sister, tugging on my hair slightly. "You're welcome back any time you want. Summers, holidays, I'm sure my parents would love to have you back."

And it felt good for once to hear that I was welcome back.

* * *

**All right. I know I hadn't posted in a few days, sorry about that. I got a bit of a dry spell. But I am back. So what did you think?**


	26. Chapter 26

I remember waking up on the twenty-sixth of December the very strangest way. Joe was shaking me awake. Turning over I looked at him in the dim light of the room, blinking back my painfully sleepy haze that clouded my vision.

"Joe? What is it?" I asked.

"It's Saturday. There's practice." He said stepping back from the bed.

"No there isn't. Coach Olsen said there wasn't going to be practice until next Saturday." I tried turning over to cover my shoulder.

Yet when the blanket was yanked off I groaned.

"Come on, Birthday Girl. It's time to get up." Joe grabbed my only visible arm and tugged me into a sitting position.

Birthday Girl? Did he remember that the day after Christmas was my birthday?

"You remembered that it was my birthday?" I asked as I draped my legs over the side of the bed.

"Yeah, why?"

"No one has ever really remembered that fact. It's usually over shadowed by Christmas."

"Well, you better get used to it, Annie. Now get up, get dressed and get ready to leave. Dwayne's coming by for practice also." He tossed me a pair of pants. "Get dressed so we can get out of here."

Something was up, something was really up and it was Joe. Why would he tell me that we had to go to practice? Where was Myritza? She wasn't in her bed when I got rudely woken up.

By the time that I got ready, laptop in hand, I was downstairs looking at the still put up Christmas tree.

"Ready?"

Joe was standing at the front door, the door was open and I could see that he had started up his car. I turned from the tree and started for the door. Vanessa was walking down the stairs as I got to the door.

"Have fun," was all that she said as she headed to the kitchen.

There was no getting to her. That was her fault. I would be leaving the next day and she wouldn't have to deal with me anymore.

"Wait, can I come?" Summer called running out of the front door.

"Sure, get in." I said, opening the door to the backseat.

So it was Summer, Joe and I heading to the football practice. Or at least it was supposed to be that. As we neared the football field's parking lot at the school, something really was amiss. The team was gathered around the bleachers, but none of them wore their uniforms or gear. Dwayne was already there, he was with Myritza and they were talking to Mr. Olsen when Summer, Joe and I approached.

"What's going on?" I asked Joe, looking at him. My brows were knitted together, the guys on the team were all having a good time and it was like I was subject of all the conversations.

Mr. Olsen spoke up when he heard me. "Hey, there you are."

Heads turned to look at me. That's when I saw the presents on one of the seats on the bleacher. They weren't wrapped in Christmas wrappings, they were wrapped in birthday wrapping. It was the first time in a long time that I had realized that it was a special occasion just for me.

"We decided to celebrate your birthday." I heard Sketch say, sort of appearing around the side of Dwayne. "We just had to get Joe to trick you into coming."

"Yeah, that was a wake up call for sure." Glancing at Joe, I smirked. "But you guys do know that I'll be gone by tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah, Joe told us. That's why we all decided to get together and give you the best damned send off that we could." Mike said, approaching me.

Uh oh, I prepared for the worst. It was like a surge, a wave sort of. I was enveloped in a hug, sort of. It was more of a huddled hug, tall guys towering over me like oak trees, their large arms were not saplings in any sense. And yet that was the one time I knew how special I was to this team, even though I hadn't been there long enough.

"Take care, Annie." Sam said, rubbing my back once my head was cleared of the hugging. "Stay in touch, too."

"All I can do is try." I said, feeling the burn in my eyes well up. "That's the best that I can do."

"Come on, it's your birthday." Dwayne spoke up. "Let's have some fun."

First up were the presents. I got a lot of cool things but the coolest was from Mr. Olsen, who had given me a jersey with my name on it, giving me the number fourteen, because I had made a comment that my favorite number was fourteen. I was surprised that he had done that for me. I had my own jersey, which I would have worn if I had ever gone to a game. But I was there, I was there for the practices, for the team and getting involved with them at lunch.

"You're as much as a team player, Annie." Mr. Olsen said, smiling at me from where he stood next to Dwayne. "This is so that no matter where you are, you're still apart of this team."

"Thanks, thank you, Mr. Olsen. I really appreciate this." I said smiling at him.

Would it be strange to hug him? Yeah, it was. But it still felt good to know that even my own football coach thought of me as a part of the team.

Summer told me something during this impromptu gathering for my birthday. While the party was going on, some of the guys had decided to get in a practice game with Dwayne, Joe was going off with them and she and I were the only ones still sitting on the bleachers. I was surrounded by my presents, I was going through them, from writing books to writing notebooks, pens and pencil sets, things that I would love to have with me at all times.

"I wanted to tell you something, Annie." Summer said, playing around with one of the packages of pencils.

"Yeah?" "You would have been a cool sister if you were adopted."

"Do you really think that? Life would be hell if I were in that house with Vanessa." I said looking at her. "I mean, I've been here for a month, I can't say that I was ever really the best person to be around.

"The only reason why I ever really hated you was because Vanessa said that you would be a burden. You would be the only one that mattered in the house, that you would screw things up. She had me believe that all foster kids are trouble makers."

"What made you stop?"

"Time, time to see that you were a good person. That you had good qualities and I started to see you weren't the kind of person she made you out to be."

"Thank you, for taking the time to get to know me, Summer. I really appreciate it. How's that boy issue you were having doing?"

"Good," she blushed, looking back down to the object she was fiddling with in her hands.

Good my butt, she had gone for it. I could see it all of her face. She wouldn't look at me. Embarrassed, yeah I'll take that.

"Good," I repeated as I turned back to watching the guys involved in the football game.

* * *

"I can't believe you did that." I said as Dwayne, Joe, Sketch, Summer, Sam, Kevin, Sandy and I came back to Joe's house.

"What, it's your birthday." Dwayne said. "You're supposed to live life to the fullest on this day."

"By getting us involved in a football game." I motioned to Summer and then myself. "And then shoving me into a large mud puddle?"

"Hey, that wasn't my idea." He held his hands up, shaking his hands. "Talk to my cousin."

It was true. Somehow Joe convinced Summer and me to get involved in a light tackle game. No pads, or anything like that. And I was placed as a running back, and I was passed a ball. But as a tackler, Joe was supposed to stop me. He didn't need to shove me into a damn mud puddle.

"What happened to you?" Ms. Patricia asked as she came into the front room. "Summer, Annie, what happened?"

"Ask Joe." We chorused.

"Well go get cleaned up. It's time to get your birthday party started. Solofa is bringing the twins over." At least they were going to be there, I had started to really like them.

After taking a shower, I got changed and was really starting to get antsy. What was this day going to be like? Where was it heading for me.

"I leave tomorrow." I told Myritza.

"I know. It sucks." She said as she lounged on her bed. "So, are you prepared for what's going on today?"

"I don't even know what's going on. I mean, Joe sort of tricked me into believing that there was a practice today. They all sort of thought it out on their own."

She laughed. "I would have gone if I had been up. But Mom wanted me to help with what was going on here."

"What did you do?" "You'll just have to find out." She shook her shoulders slightly, as if she were laughing at me.

What was that suppose to mean? I didn't have a chance to think of something because the next thing I knew there was a loud knock, the kind of knock that I could hear from the bedroom. It was Solofa and the twins. His wife and other children were spending time with other family members, so it was the two older sons of Solofa. But there was yet another person there, a person that had caused so much drama in my life. No it wasn't Vanessa.

"What are you doing here, Sarah?" I asked as I came down into the front room.

She looked a bit different. Her hair was still flat, she had better looking cloths and she even tried to smile at me. I think it was the fact that I really didn't acknowledge her as a mother to me.

"It's your birthday. I thought I should be able to spend it with you."

I blankly looked at her. Every thought I had about her was there, right there on the tip of my tongue. Everything I was feeling, everything I thought of her at that moment. I would have been adopted, I would have had a family, but that didn't happen. She was taking me from one of the only families that I had ever really cared for.

"Look, Annie," she began to say.

"Annella." I corrected. "It's the name you gave me."

"Annella, sorry. Look, sweetie, I'm trying, I'm really trying."

"Why did you come back?" I crossed my arms. I wasn't sure if it was to prevent me from lashing out at her or to protect myself from her. "Why do you even want me?"

"You're my daughter."

"It took you umpteen years to find me, I lived great without you, what makes you think that just by showing up, taking me away, you're what? Saving me?"

"Have you seen these people?" Her voice lowered.

"Are you racist?"

"What, no, I'm just…these aren't the kind of people you should have been placed with."

"Because they are athletic, have a good home, a good lifestyle. Aside from the fact that one of the kids and I don't get a long," I began before she cut me off.

"That's the reason. Did you see the way she spoke about me?"

"Because she hates that I came in and ruined her home life. She was trying to jab at me. That's why I blew up at her yesterday." I said taking a step towards the woman that called herself my mother. "So let's get something straight, you're taking me away from a family I cherish. You're fucking with my life. I don't like it when someone thinks that they can run my life for me."

"You're a minor. You don't really have a choice in that manner."

"Then you better realize something, I hate you." Simple and straight forward. "You're nothing to me. I have no love for you. And just so you know, the first chance I get, I'm leaving you as soon as I can. This place, these people, they are my family. They mean the world to me. You'll have your two years, but then I'm out of here."

"Don't threaten me, Annella."

"I'm not threatening you. I'm telling you that I am leaving you as soon as I can." I passed her not caring that Ms. Trent was there, watching the exchange between the older woman and myself.

I decided I was going to have a fun day, for Joe's and Myritza's sakes. Summer and I had a fun early morning romp with the football team so I knew she wanted to have an even more fun time for the day.

What it turned into was a whole entire Hawaiian themed meal, more pork that what I had expected. Just the fact that one of the gifts was given to me was a cowrie shell necklace that went great with the necklace that Joe had given me.

"Thank you, Ms. Patricia." I said standing up from the table to hug her.

The next present came from Sarah. But it wasn't what I had expected to see. It was something of a shock to find a book in my hand. Rather than it being a book on how to write, a journal or a notebook, it was a book of Beowulf.

"I used to read that to you when you were young. It was the only book that I had and between trips I would read to you." She explained.

I could hear the strain in her voice. She choked up on her words. But because I didn't remember that, well it was hard to take anything she had to say to heart. So I just smiled and thanked her politely.

By the end of the day, it was obvious, I was leaving in the morning. This was going to be my last night in the Anoa'i family.

"How are you doing?" Dwayne asked when there was a lull in the activity at the house.

"I guess I'm just trying to enjoy it, you know. Trying to not think that I won't be seeing everyone for a little while." My eyes landed on Sketch, who was goofing off with Joe and the other football players that had come back to the house with us. "I know I'm going to miss everyone here."

"I heard about the little fight you and your mom," I cut him off.

"She isn't my mom. Maybe by blood but she has never been a mother to me."

"I can only guess what is going on with you right now, Annie." Dwayne sat down at the table with me. "But you know this can't be negated. You can't fix it."

My head bobbed, it didn't nod because I hated it. I hated the fact that it was even happening. I couldn't stand it really. I couldn't stand that I had to go through this, but it didn't mean I couldn't voice myself to this woman.

Off in the distance I could see Ms. Patricia, Ms. Trent and Sarah talking. I think it was the fact that Sarah sort of assimilated into the adults. Sandy, Myritza and Summer were all hanging out on the steps, the boys were all buddying with each other. Then there was Vanessa, watching everything from a safe distance.

"So, what do you plan on doing when you get to San Francisco?" Dwayne asked.

"I don't know. Sulk for the most part, I guess. Figure out where Solofa's family is and go there as much as often. Get through school because California is not the best place for schools, you know."

"I've heard worse. But don't worry, I'm sure it will all work out for the best." He said rubbing my back.

I hoped so.

Goodness knows, I really hoped so.

* * *

**Well there you go. After much difficulty, I had finally come up with another update. What do you think?**


	27. Chapter 27 (Epilogue)

The next morning, I had a flight out to get to. Joe's parents took Sarah and I to the airport where we met up with Joe's cousins, the Fatu family. But Joe wasn't there, he hadn't gotten up in time to see me off and I was getting worried. Myritza wasn't there also. She wasn't up, she had a lot of fun with the birthday I had the day before so she had called it an early night. She wasn't even up when I had to get ready to leave.

"Everything will be fine." Summer told me as I walked behind Sarah.

Dwayne was probably the most famous person in the entire Pensacola International Airport. Him and his wife, with their daughter were returning to their LA home while I was getting on a flight bound to San Francisco with the Fatu family. Ms. Trent was there, so was Sarah of course.

"I hope so." I said, glaring at the back of Sarah's head.

As we were waiting for our flights, I didn't know what to do. I was bored, I had everything writing worthy packed in my backpack and I couldn't sit down to do anything writing worthy. My large trunk was already heading out towards where our plane was going to be located.

"Are you scared of flying?" I asked Sarah as we stood waiting for our flight to San Francisco to be called.

Sarah shook her head. "No, actually growing up I used to jump on freight trains and travel that way. I flew a few times when I could but I settled in California with your grandmother a few years back. I haven't done much traveling in that time."

There was a pause in our conversation. Tapping my toes, I looked around and sighed.

"Is she nice?" I asked, thinking about the life I was going to get shoved into. I looked up, not at Sarah but for Joe. He promised he was going to be there. Where was he?

"Is who nice? Your grandmother? Oh, sweetie," she lightly touched my shoulder, at which I jerked from her touch. "She's very nice. She wants to meet you. Actually, you and her have a lot in common." Sarah put her hand back down at her side.

"Yeah, like what?"

"Well, aside from being a little loopy at times, she likes doing crafts. I know it isn't writing but she loves painting. It's her way of telling stories."

Where was Joe? His family had said that they would be seeing me off and only Joe and Myritza were still missing. I scanned around the crowd, hoping to glance the tall men that were Joe and Mr. Sika. You could never miss them in a crowd, but with someone like Dwayne hanging around, there were people waiting to see him, to touch him, get his autographs. I just wanted to see Joe and his family one last time before I had to leave.

"Calling for Flight 28, please head to Gate 3C for boarding." The overhead voice told the airport. I think the voice sounded like a woman, an unenthusiastic woman at least.

"That's us." Sarah said as she reached down for her carry on suitcase.

I had my trunk loaded up for the travel. It would be waiting for us when we got to San Francisco. My laptop was going up in the plane with me. There was no ifs ands or buts about it, that thing had left my hand since I got up that morning.

The majority of the people going on the plane were heading that way. With one last glance over my shoulder I followed Joshua towards our boarding gate.

"Annella!" I heard my name get called.

Looking up to see the defensive tackler running full sprint towards me, I pivoted and ran back towards him. He caught me at about the halfway point, scooping me up in his arms, pressing his face into my neck. Regardless of the prickly and tickle feeling I had when his facial hair brushed up against my skin, I hugged him the best that I could.

"I would never forget about you, Annie." Joe said into my neck.

He stepped back, putting me down on the ground in the process. I looked up at him, oblivious to the fact that I was crying at that point. I could see his family a safe distance behind him, watching.

"I'll always love you, Annie. As a sister and maybe as something more. But we need this."

"We need to part. But even some rivers part but they come back together later on. Even the mighty Amazon curls in on itself." I said.

"I'll miss you, Annie." He pushed some hair from my face.

Before I could say anything, Joe leaned down and pressed his mouth to mine. Unlike what happened at the dance, this felt different. It wasn't bad, it was reassuring and not chaste at all. I kissed him back, cupping his face with my own, our noses rubbing an attempt to get closer than that. We were so close we were breathing in each other's breath.

"I'll see you again. I promise." Joe mumbled pulling away.

"Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day." I said, quoting something I had heard before but was uncertain where. "Thank you for being my family."

"No problem, Annie."

I hugged each and every one of Joe's family, yes even Vanessa though she hadn't expected it to say the least. But still she allowed it, I think her parents forced her. And then I was off on my way to my new life in a new world with a new family yet again.

I remember sitting next to Sarah on that plane, Joshua and Jonathan sitting in the row ahead of me, and when I looked out of the window, I watched the ground disappear below me. Stability left me. What linked me to Joe was gone. What kept me sane and safe were left behind. I could just picture Joe watching the plane leave, could see him waving at me even though I hadn't seen him. Even so, I lifted my hand and waved, looking down at the world below me.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asked me.

"I'm saying my goodbyes and farewells." I answered settling back in my seat.

So long, farewell, we will see each other again, I made that promise to myself and to Joe. We would see each other again. I'm sure of it.

This may not have been the happy ending that we had wanted, the book that was written with us as the characters. But maybe the author would write a sequel to this story I had lived.

I wonder what that sequel would be.

Would it have a happy ending as well?

* * *

**Sorry but I had to end this as it is. I promise I will get a sequel up some time soon. I just really need to take a break from writing. I don't even have an idea of what I want to do with a sequel yet. But I promise there will be a sequel. **

**Stay safe,**

**Eryessa**


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